U.S. educational publisher Houghton Mifflin has disputed ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgrade of its ratings last week, telling the Financial Times that it "must take issues with the opinions contained in the S&P review," the FT reported Monday.

S&P cut ratings for HMH Education Media & Publishing, from B- to CCC and posted a "negative" outlook. The ratings firm stated near-term prospects for spending on text-books are cause for concern.

Further, S&P expressed concern that EMP's debt of US$7.4 billion, which it took on in 2006 and 2007 through acquisitions. Moody also cut HMH's ratings in December, according to the Financial Times.

HMH reported double-digit earnings growth in 2008, and also reported that cost-cutting should translate into double-digit earnings in 2009, before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, the Financial Times reported.

According to the Association of American Publishers, textbook spending covering kindergarten to the 12th grade dropped by 4.4 percent in 2008, and could drop by 10 percent in 2009, according to J.P. Morgan, "as school districts delay purchases and state-wide adoptions of new courses fall by 10 to 30 per cent," the Financial Times reported.