Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-03-04

without advertising for sixty days, as
required by Section l,S74 of the Polit-
icai Code, has been asked so frt-
quently by superintendents and
others, that Twas constrained to sui :
NIT the question to the Attorney
General for his opinion.
In November, 1887, I received a
letter containing the following ques-
tlons, which l submitted to the At
torney- General November goth, and
received the subjoined opinion from
him on November 80, 1887:
ADOPTION OF TEXTBOOKS BY COUNTY
BOARDS.
Ira q. Holt, Superintendent Public In
structi0n:-
DEAR SIR: In your letter of the
26th instant you ask:
l. Can County Boards of Educa-
ton adopt new textbooks, or change
those now in use, at any other times
than during the months of May and
June, said change to take effect on
the first of July thereafter?
| 2. Must not County Boards adver-
tise any such proposed change for
sixty days?
3. Does the amendment to Section
z, Article TX, OF the Constitution, su-
persed all of the provisions Of Section
1874 Of the Political Code, and allow
County Boards of Education to make
any changes they please, and at any
time they please, in textbooks other
than those published and to be pub
lished by the State?
4. If they can enter into contracts
with publishers for any such books,
must it be for four years, or until the
State shall provide such books, if that
is done in less than four years?
If certain class of textbooks is
not furnished by the State Board
under Article TX, Section Z, of the
Constitution, then Section 1874 of the
Political Code is not superseded as to
such books. In regard to textbooks
not now provided for by the State, or
not yet prepared under the authority
Of the State, 1 think the County
Boards have the authority to adopt
the same, and the contracts made
should be until the State shall provide
such books, but, in any event, not to
exceed four years.
1t is not necessary to answer your
questions with any further particulars,
as the County Boards would have to
be governed by Section 1874 of the
Political Code, above referred to, ex-
cept that the State books, when ready,
will take the place of the books
adopted by the County Boards. Very
truly yours, &. A. JOHNSON,
Attorney-G General.
November 80, 1887.
From the foregoing it is plain that
no new books should be adopted, and
no changes Of books now in use (ex-
cepting for books published by the
State), can legally be made without
advertising for sixty days, and no
changes, or adoptions. can be legally
made at any time, except during the
months of May and June. The fol-
lowing books, of the State series, are
now ready for use: First, Second and
Third Readers, Speller, Advanced
Arithmetic, and Primary Number
Lessons. The History of the United
States and the English Grammar will
be ready in July, 1888. The Physi-
ology and Elementary Grammar are
expected to be ready by January.
1889. The State has made no provi-
sion for publishing other books than
those named above.
l recommend that all books, now in
use in those studies for which the
State is providing text books, be re-
tained until the State books are
ready, since change in any of these
books will entail an unnecessary ex-
pense upon the pupils.
Respectfully,
IRA. G. HoITT,
Superintendent Public sruction.