Sec. 31.151. DUTIES OF PUBLISHERS AND MANUFACTURERS. (a) A publisher or manufacturer of instructional materials:
(1) shall furnish any instructional material the publisher or manufacturer offers in this state at a price that does not exceed the lowest price at which the publisher offers that instructional material for adoption or sale to any state, public school, or school district in the United States;
(2) shall automatically reduce the price of instructional material sold for use in a school district or open-enrollment charter school to the extent that the price is reduced elsewhere in the United States;
(3) shall provide any instructional material or ancillary item free of charge in this state to the same extent that the publisher or manufacturer provides the instructional material or ancillary item free of charge to any state, public school, or school district in the United States;
(4) shall guarantee that each copy of instructional material sold in this state is at least equal in quality to copies of that instructional material sold elsewhere in the United States and is free from factual error;
(5) may not become associated or connected with, directly or indirectly, any combination in restraint of trade in instructional materials or enter into any understanding or combination to control prices or restrict competition in the sale of instructional materials for use in this state;
(6) shall deliver instructional materials to a school district or open-enrollment charter school;
(7) shall, at the time an order for instructional materials is acknowledged, provide to school districts or open-enrollment charter schools an accurate shipping date for instructional materials that are back-ordered;
(8) shall guarantee delivery of instructional materials at least 10 business days before the opening day of school of the year for which the instructional materials are ordered if the instructional materials are ordered by a date specified in the sales contract; and
(9) shall submit to the State Board of Education an affidavit certifying any instructional material the publisher or manufacturer offers in this state to be free of factual errors at the time the publisher executes the contract required by Section 31.026.
(b) The State Board of Education may impose a reasonable administrative penalty against a publisher or manufacturer who knowingly violates Subsection (a). The board shall provide for a hearing to be held to determine whether a penalty is to be imposed and, if so, the amount of the penalty. The board shall base the amount of the penalty on:
(1) the seriousness of the violation;
(2) any history of a previous violation;
(3) the amount necessary to deter a future violation;
(4) any effort to correct the violation; and
(5) any other matter justice requires.
(c) A hearing under Subsection (b) shall be held according to rules adopted by the State Board of Education.
(d) A penalty collected under this section shall be deposited to the credit of the state instructional materials fund.
(e) An eligible institution, as defined by Section 31.0241(a), that offers open-source instructional materials under Section 31.0241 is not a publisher or manufacturer for purposes of this section.
Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 260, Sec. 1, eff. May 30, 1995. Amended by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 129, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2001; Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 805, Sec. 7, eff. June 14, 2001; Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 1276, Sec. 6.004, eff. Sept. 1, 2003.
Amended by:
Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 679 (H.B. 2488), Sec. 10, eff. September 1, 2009.
Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., 1st C.S., Ch. 6 (S.B. 6), Sec. 57, eff. July 19, 2011.
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