RS 17:8 School books prescribed by board; contracts with publishers
§8. School books prescribed by board; contracts with publishers
A.(1)(a) The board shall prescribe and adopt and shall exercise control and supervision over the distribution and use of free school books and other materials of instruction for use in elementary and secondary schools and special schools, as provided by Part IV of this Chapter, and shall adopt necessary rules and regulations governing their use by schools, parish and city school boards, and parish and city superintendents of education. Such rules and regulations shall include but not be limited to a requirement that each parish and city school board shall adopt by not later than the beginning of the 1991-1992 school year procedures permitting any public school student to have use after regular school hours during the week and on weekends of any school book used to teach reading. Any public school student using any school book pursuant to the provisions of this Subsection shall be responsible for such school book. These procedures shall not be applicable to basal readers and programs.
(b) Repealed by Acts 2001, No. 315, §2, eff. June 6, 2001.
(c) The board shall adopt lists of basic textbooks and shall adopt one or more lists thereof. It may authorize and approve revised editions of any school book it adopts.
(2) The board may authorize the Louisiana School of Math, Science, and the Arts and other parish or city school boards with programs for gifted students to select and purchase textbooks not included on the lists adopted by the board pursuant to the provisions of this Section, provided that such authorization shall be on an ad hoc basis and shall be subject to prior approval by the board. Such purchases may be made using funds appropriated by the legislature for the purchase of textbooks as provided for herein.
B. The board shall prescribe and adopt and shall exercise supervision and control over the distribution and use of school books and other learning materials, supplies, and equipment for post secondary and vocational-technical schools and programs.
C. Each contract with a publisher for school books shall be awarded on a competitive basis. Each such contract shall be made for a term to be determined by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Each contract shall be so made as to authorize the board to terminate it upon ninety days' notice. The procedure for the announcement of school book adoptions, examining books, and awarding contracts shall be under the control of the board and in accordance with any applicable law. The board shall have authority to set and collect fees from publishers participating in state school book adoption procedures.
D. Each contract shall stipulate that the publisher shall automatically reduce the net cost of textbooks in the state when the net cost of the publisher for books covered by the contract are reduced anywhere in the United States, so that no edition of that textbook shall at any time be sold in this state at a higher net cost than that received for that book elsewhere in the United States.
E. Each contract with a publisher shall stipulate that the book or books covered by the contract to be sold in this state shall be identical with the official samples filed with the board with respect to size, paper, binding, print, illustrations, subject matter, and all other particulars which may affect the value of said books. However, during the period of the contract, the board may approve revised editions of an adopted textbook or service at the bid price, which will authorize a publisher to provide such revisions.
F. Each contract with a publisher shall stipulate that whenever five thousand or more copies of a textbook of a single title and edition are to be purchased by the state from a single publisher during a twelve month period which shall be established by the board by rule, not less than eighty percent of the total number of the copies of such book purchased by the state shall be printed and bound by a printer licensed to do business and doing business within the state, provided that the publisher receives a timely bid made according to the publisher's bid-making requirements from such a printer and provided that the printer is able to print and bind such book in accordance with the manufacturer's specifications for state textbooks as promulgated by the state Department of Education and at a cost equal to or less than the unit cost per book for the same number of books made in an otherwise qualified bid by any out-of-state printer bidding on the same work. Whenever two or more printers in this state submit bids which would qualify all of them to print and bind textbooks pursuant to this Section and one such printer is a minority-owned business as defined in R.S. 39:1952(13), the minority-owned business shall be awarded not less than ten percent of the printing and binding required by this Section to be done in this state.
G. The state Department of Education shall be the depository in the state for books for the schools. The superintendent may do all things necessary and proper for the department to function as such depository, including but not limited to the power to enter into contracts or agreements and to acquire property, through lease or purchase, in which the depository is to be located, and to determine the location or locations of the depository. The superintendent may require publishers to maintain a depository in the state or may contract, in accordance with the procedures for the letting of contracts set forth in applicable provisions of the Louisiana Procurement Code, particularly R.S. 39:1593, with any other public or private agency to act as the depository.
H. The state Department of Education shall require any depository with whom the department does business to provide the department a written summary of all purchase orders for textbooks received by the depository from the department. The depository shall transmit such summary within three business days whenever the department requests it to do so and the department shall make such a request upon the written request of any printer licensed to and actually doing business in Louisiana. Such a summary shall be a public record. The summary shall itemize the total number of copies of each book which is the subject of a purchase order, the unit price of each book, the commissions paid to or the discounts received by the depository, and the publisher of each book.
I. The books shall be distributed to the several parish and city school boards from the depository on requisition of the superintendent of education for public elementary and secondary education.
J.(1) The board shall establish a procedure enabling any governing authority of a public elementary or secondary school, effective January 1, 1998, and thereafter, to order and receive textbooks approved by the board directly from textbook publishers. The procedure shall include but not be limited to permitting a public elementary or secondary school governing authority to contract with a textbook publisher and receive any applicable publisher's discount. However, any textbook purchased under the provisions of this Paragraph shall be purchased at the same price or a lower price than such textbook can be purchased from any source other than the publisher.
(2) The board shall adopt necessary rules and regulations in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act to implement the provisions of the Subsection.
Acts 1975, No. 274, §1; Acts 1986, No. 961, §1; Acts 1987, No. 349, §1, eff. May 15, 1987; Acts 1991, No. 493, §1, eff. July 15, 1991; Acts 1997, No. 426, §1, eff. June 22, 1997; Acts 1997, No. 545, §1, eff. July 1, 1997; Acts 1999, No. 190, §1; Acts 2001, No. 315, §2, eff. June 6, 2001.