A whistleblower has filed a complaint that publisher McGraw Hill unfairly charged some counties for instructional materials.
A whistleblower complaint filed with the state of Florida claims publisher McGraw Hill overcharged more than half a dozen school systems, including two locally, by hundreds of thousands of dollars for textbooks.
The complaint, according to a letter from the Tallahassee law firm Komisar-Spicola, which represents the anonymous whistleblower, says a search of purchase orders “show a potential overcharge to the state of Florida of nearly $2.4 million” just on English Language Arts materials for elementary school students. This happened in seven out of Florida’s 67 school districts.
Locally, the School District of Lee County was overcharged by $842,703, and the Polk County School District was overcharged by $731,568.74 for kindergarten through fifth grade ELA adoption last year, the complaint alleges.
Miami was overcharged by more than $1.2 million.
A spokesperson for Polk County schools says the district is not able to comment on the complaint. Lee County schools did not respond to a request for comment.
The attorney general’s office, in an email, says “our office is aware of this matter and cannot comment further at this time.”
The Business Observer was provided a copy of the May 2 letter and the exhibits sent to the Florida Department of Education and the Office of the Attorney General. A spokesperson for the law firm confirmed the documents are...
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