Code Proposed to Guide Textbook Sales to Schools

Stung by allegations of misconduct in textbook purchasing, state education officials are considering a new code of conduct to govern the behavior of local school officials who buy textbooks and publishers who sell them.

The new code was adopted by the state Curriculum Commission two weeks ago and will be considered by the state Board of Education when it meets here Friday.

The proposed code urges each of California’s 1,013 school districts to adopt policies prohibiting the acceptance of money or gifts that might “influence the adoption or purchase of any instructional material.”

The code also reminds textbook publishers that they are not to provide expensive meals or weekends at fancy resorts to local educators who are making textbook evaluations and selections. Nor are they to offer discounts, free workbooks or other free materials or services to one district that are not offered to all.

In addition, school districts would be asked to require conflict-of-interest disclosures from textbook evaluators. The goal would be to prevent teachers and administrators who have written textbooks or have advised textbook publishers from serving on local panels that select instructional materials.

One case cited by industry sources is that of Melinda Martin, an elementary school principal in San Diego who served as a paid adviser to publisher Harcourt Brace Jovanovich on an elementary reading series titled “Imagination.” She later helped to select $8.5 million worth of reading and language arts books for the San Diego schools.

“Imagination” is one of three reading series that are being tested for use in grades one through six in San Diego.

“This is not desirable,” said Kay Freebern, who supervises textbook evaluation and purchasing for the San Diego Unified School District.

But Frank Till, the assistant superintendent who reviewed the Martin case, said the principal worked for Harcourt Brace Jovanovich before she became involved in the textbook selection process.

Ended Role in Selection

Martin revealed her ties to the publisher on a conflict-of-interest disclosure form and “removed herself from the selection process,” Till said, though she continued to be involved as a consultant to Till and as a “coordinator.”

Both the state Board of Education and the Curriculum Commission have been discussing the conduct code for several months, but the discussions took on some urgency recently after the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the publishers were simply adding the expense of “wining and dining” into the cost of textbooks.

The Chronicle reported that publishers routinely treat modestly paid educators to fancy lunches and dinners and to weekend “seminars” at expensive hotels like the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point to gain favorable recommendations for their textbooks.

It was also reported that some publishers offer discounts, free workbooks, free “teacher editions” and other supplementary materials to large school districts but not to smaller districts, though this is a violation of state law.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said the textbook selection process is “basically clean at the state level” but “we need to tighten up local policies on trips, meals and that kind of thing.”

Statewide Book Policy

California spends more than $150 million a year on instructional materials in kindergarten through 12th grade. It is one of 22 states with statewide textbook adoption policies. After a lengthy evaluation process, the state Board of Education selects five to 15 sets of materials in each major subject for kindergarten through eighth grade. Local school districts then choose from the state-approved list.

Joseph Carrabino, a professor in the Graduate School of Management at UCLA and a member of the state board, said he was “shocked by the extent of the kickbacks” that publishers apparently make to school districts that buy their textbooks.

“What we need are tight controls at the district level,” Carrabino said. “You can’t eliminate cheating but you can make it more difficult.” Carrabino said he will make some proposals for “tightening up the process” at Friday’s meeting.

At present, the state Board of Education has no authority to set local district policy, but Honig said the proposed conduct code “will help focus people’s attention on the relationships” between publishers and textbook evaluators and purchasers.

Francie Alexander, the associate state superintendent who supervises the textbook evaluation process, said that the “wining and dining” claims were overblown but that the code will help because “with guidance, people will do the right thing.”

Group Supports Code

Don Eklund, vice president of the school division of the Assn. of American Publishers, the textbook publishers’ trade association, said his organization has been trying to persuade California to adopt such a conduct code for three years.

“It’s very proper that people be reminded of these things,” Eklund said. “Then each person has to do what they think is best.”

But John B. Mockler, Sacramento lobbyist for the textbook publishers, said that although the code is “a good idea in concept,” it presents many practical problems.

For example, Mockler said, if publishers are not permitted to invite representatives of a large number of small school districts to a single weekend meeting at a hotel or resort, then the publishers might decide not to try to sell their books in those small districts at all.

“We need to sit down with them and work out these problems so we can apply this in a reasonable way,” he said.

Publishers’ Complaints

Textbook publishers complain that they do not like to provide expensive meals, resort weekends, discount rates, free workbooks and other benefits to local educators but are required to by demanding school districts.

But most people who have observed the publishers’ aggressive marketing tactics over the years don’t put much stock in those complaints.

“These are multibillion-dollar corporations,” said San Diego’s Freebern. “They didn’t get that way by twiddling their thumbs.”

Even Mockler, the publishers’ lobbyist, conceded that there are problems on both sides.

“Some companies use sales techniques that go beyond any reasonable limit, and there are some district demands that are unreasonable,” he said. “The victims and the victimizers have much in common.”