Total revenue at McGraw-Hill Education fell 1.6%, to $277.2 million, for the first quarter ended March 31, and the operating loss increased by 1.4%, to $72.8 million. The decline came entirely in the school group, which had a 6.3% drop in sales, to $127.9 million. Sales of supplementary materials were down in the year due in part to the discontinuation of coloring and activity books in the last half of 2002. Sales of reading, math and social studies textbooks were up.
Company chairman Terry McGraw said, "Concern over state deficits continues to create uncertainty about the outlook for educational funding." He noted that Kentucky recently decided to postpone this year's math adoption and that Texas still has not decided how much funding to allocate for several adoptions scheduled for that state. Somewhat offsetting the budget shortfalls at the state level is funding from the federal government. M-HE estimated that $541 million in Reading First grants have reached the states.
In M-HE's higher education, professional and international group, sales rose 2.9%, to $149.3 million. Sales of professional titles were up, as were sales of scientific, technical, medical and professional reference works. Sales of computer and technology books fell in the quarter.
