Governor Ron DeSantis announced a lawsuit against McGraw-Hill and Savvas, two of the nation's largest school textbook publishers, accusing them of overcharging Florida school districts, including Osceola County, by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The lawsuit is based on a complaint from a whistleblower in 2022, who claimed the companies were giving discounts on textbooks to some large districts and not to smaller ones.
Florida law requires the publishers to give districts the lowest price they have for products in any state or other district.
State officials say many districts did not get the lowest price, and for Osceola County, that means taxpayers were overcharged $279,000.
The civil penalties for this alleged fraud could amount to $37.5 million to $60.5 million between the two publishers, so this is something that’s significant.
The governor's visit also comes after a federal judge struck down part of the 2023 law that let parents or residents in a county challenge books in a school’s library or classrooms if they are pornographic or contain sexual content.
The governor said he does plan to appeal that ruling.
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