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Florida sues McGraw Hill, Savvas over claims they sold schools overpriced textbooks

Books at the Voyager K-8 School Library in Osceola County.
Danielle Prieur
Books at the Voyager K-8 School Library in Osceola County.

The state of Florida is suing publishers McGraw Hill and Savvas Learning Company over what it claims were overpriced textbooks sold to Florida schools.

Governor Ron DeSantis announced the lawsuit Tuesday, accusing the publishers of selling textbooks at higher than their lowest base price at least 5,900 times in Florida, which DeSantis said is against state law.

Two women look on as Governor Ron DeSantis talks about education gains at Voyager K-8 School.
Danielle Prieur /
Two women look on as Governor Ron DeSantis talks about education gains at Voyager K-8 School.

"When textbook publishers apply to be placed in the state's adopted textbook list, they agree in writing to automatically reduce the price of instructional materials to match reductions that have been made in other places throughout the United States of America, and that was not being done by these two textbook companies," said DeSantis. 

DeSantis said the state started to piece together overcharges after a whistleblower complaint was filed with the Florida Attorney General's office.

DeSantis said some of these overpriced books were sold to Osceola County Schools where the governor made the announcement about the lawsuit. In one case, he claims the district was overcharged by as much as $279,000 for just one textbook that was used at several schools throughout the district.

Watch the governor's full announcement of the lawsuit here:

In total, he estimated the companies could owe up to $60 million dollars in civil penalties for breaking the law.

"Those resources should be going to the school districts, to the teachers and other ways that are going to be productive, not to pad the profits of textbook companies who are not following the letter of the law," said DeSantis.

In separate statements, McGraw Hill and Savvas Learning Company denied the claims and said they plan to defend their companies vigorously.

Voyager K-8 students were Battle of the Books District Champions last year.
Danielle Prieur /
Voyager K-8 students were Battle of the Books District Champions last year.

"We believe the AG's claims lack factual and legal merit on multiple grounds. We plan to defend our position vigorously," said McGraw Hill.

"Savvas Learning Company has policies and procedures in place to comply with applicable statutes governing the procurement of instructional materials. We have always been, and continue to be, committed to complying with all laws and regulations pertaining to the sale of our instructional materials. We never charged Florida school districts more than the state contract price," said Savvas. "We will not publicly comment any further on this litigation and will defend our company vigorously against the allegations made by the Florida attorney general."

Copyright 2025 Central Florida Public Media

Danielle Prieur
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