Aided by $129 million in sales from the Tribune Education properties that it acquired last year, revenues for McGraw-Hill Cos.' education group rose 17.8%, to $998.8 million, in the third quarter, ended September 30, 2001. Operating income was up 18.4%, to $305.1 million.

Although sales were up in MHC's elhi operations, company chairman Terry McGraw said the publisher would have had higher gains if not for funding cuts in Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia as well as disappointing sales in math and science in California. In addition, transition issues involving businesses acquired from Tribune led to lower-than-expected sales at the supplementary publisher Wright Group as well as at the children's publishing group.

MHC's higher education division had double-digit gains in both sales and earnings in the quarter, led by strong frontlist sales. The division also picked up some e-book sales as more than 100 colleges have adopted e-books that can be ordered from MHC's Primis e-bookstore, located at www.mhhe.com. International sales were soft, especially in Latin America, while a decline in computer book sales was a major factor in the sales decline in the professional book group.

For the first nine months of the year, operating income was up 16.6%, to $315.3 million, on a 22.3% sales gain, to $1.87 billion.