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Friday, October 5, 2007
Plot Thickens In Old Textbook Dispute
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve spent the past couple of days going through hundreds of pages of documents at the State Department of Education regarding an old textbook case that’s been dragging on for years.
Some of you may remember the story the AJC first reported in August 2004 about the department investigating suspect deals between Macmillan/McGraw-Hill — one of the country’s biggest publishers of education materials — and some of Georgia’s largest school systems.
As I understand it, public schools can purchase any textbooks or other instructional materials they want to, regardless of whether those books are approved by the state.
But the education department still enters into contracts with textbook publishers that want to sell products in Georgia. Those contractual agreements are supposed to ensure that a company’s prices and special offers for “state approved” books are provided uniformly — regardless of the size of the school system and its potential order.
Brian Pollard, a disgruntled, former Macmillan salesman, first complained to the education department in late 2002 or early 2003 that, to generate business, his company was illegally giving free items to some large systems — including DeKalb County — that others in the metro area were buying outright — a direct violation of the state textbook contract.
Since then, at least one school system — Cherokee County — has tried to get restitution for purchased books, which others got gratis.
Throughout the files I reviewed, state officials repeatedly told Pollard that they investigated and found no wrongdoing. Then yesterday — miraculously, some might say — the education department’s top lawyer handed me a memo “hot off the press” from the Attorney General’s office, which indicated that that agency may sue over the issue.
Stay tuned, this could get interesting.
