Section 37-43-21 - Textbook rating committees; disposition of sample textbooks; use of textbook allotment for repair of textbooks; prices for new textbook purchases(1) For the purpose of assisting the board during an adoption, there shall be rating committees in each of the fields in which textbooks are considered for adoption. Each committee shall be composed of seven (7) members. The State Superintendent of Public Education shall appoint four (4) members of each of the committees, each of whom shall be a competent, experienced teacher who is currently teaching in the field in which the textbooks are considered for adoption. The Governor of the State of Mississippi thereupon shall appoint three (3) members of each of said committees, who shall be persons he deems competent to participate in the appraisal of books offered for adoption, in each field, for use in the public schools of this state.(2) It shall be the duty of said rating committees to appraise the books offered for adoption in each field in which textbooks are offered for adoption and recommend eight (8) books and/or series for each adoption to be made by the board and giving the reasons for or basis of such recommendations. No book shall be recommended which does not receive a majority vote of the members of each committee. Any member dissenting from any majority vote of the committee shall make his appraisal of any book recommended or rejected by the majority of the committee and specify the reasons therefor and make such recommendations as he thinks proper. All appraisals, recommendations, and dissents if any, shall be in writing and filed with the board for its consideration upon the adoption. The travel expenses of such committees shall be reimbursed in the amount as provided in Section 25-3-41 and shall be paid out of the State Textbook Fund. Such rating committees shall be subject to the provisions of Section 37-43-17. The board shall have the power to reject any and all recommendations of the rating committees and to call for further recommendations; in no case shall the board adopt any book not recommended by the rating committees.(3) Any and all sample textbooks that may be furnished by the publisher thereof as provided by Section 37-43-59 to any member of the board, the State Superintendent of Public Education, and any member of a rating committee shall within one (1) year after receipt of same by said member be turned in to the Regional School Book Depository without cost to the State of Mississippi, and the same shall thereafter be used without any cost to the State of Mississippi in supplying free textbooks to the educable children of the State of Mississippi as now provided by law or shall be sold to the highest bidder by the board with the proceeds immediately deposited in the State Treasury to the credit of the State Textbook Fund.(4) No state official, state employee, school board member, school superintendent, principal, teacher or any other individual shall sell or donate sample textbooks furnished them by the Regional School Book Depository as part of the textbook adoption or selection process. Said individuals and public officials shall not receive payment by the regional depository, any publisher or any other company for sample textbooks.(5) School districts may annually utilize any portion of the textbook allotment for the repair of textbooks; provided, however, that school districts are authorized and encouraged to utilize the Mississippi Department of Corrections bookbinder for the repair of textbooks.(6) Prices for new textbook purchases shall not be higher than the lowest price at which books are sold anywhere in the United States, after all discounts are allowed.Codes, 1942, § 6641; Laws, 1940, ch. 202; Laws, 1942, ch. 152; Laws, 1946, ch. 444, § 2; Laws, 1960, ch. 310; Laws, 1981, ch. 507, § 12; reenacted, Laws, 1983, 1st Ex Sess, ch. 2, § 11; Laws, 1984, ch. 404, § 11; Laws, 1985, ch. 395, § 11; Laws, 1986, ch. 349, § 11; reenacted and amended, Laws, 1987, ch. 481, § 5; Laws, 1989, ch. 585, § 2; Laws, 1991, ch. 568, § 1; Laws, 1994, ch. 405, § 3; Laws, 1996, ch. 534, § 4, eff. 7/1/1996.Amended by Laws, 2022, ch. 350, SB 2431,§ 1, eff. 7/1/2022.