BILL ANALYSIS
SB 388
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SENATE THIRD READING
SB 388 (Ron Calderon)
As Amended July 14, 2009
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :31-5
HIGHER EDUCATION 6-1
--------------------------------
|Ayes:|Portantino, Block, Fong, |
| |Huber, Ma, Ruskin |
| | |
|-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Conway |
| | |
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SUMMARY : Establishes the Accountability in College Textbook
Publishing Practices Act (Act). Specifically, this bill :
1)Establishes legislative intent regarding the importance of
student access to affordable course materials, the role of
faculty in ensuring affordable access to materials, the
importance of innovation in the development and use of course
materials such as open educational resources, and the need to
strengthen and enforce existing federal regulations.
2)Establishes various definitions for the terms used in the
bill.
3)Requires textbook publishers who provide a faculty member with
information regarding a college textbook or supplemental
material to also disclose whether the college textbook or
supplemental material is available in any other format,
including paperback or unbound, and the corresponding price.
4)Requires textbook publishers to do all of the following:
a) Make the price available on the publisher's Internet Web
site;
b) Charge no more than the price listed on the publisher's
Web site on the date that the campus order is received;
and,
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c) If a publisher provides a faculty member with the price
of a textbook or supplemental material, and after a price
is provided, but before an order is placed, the publisher
changes the price of a college textbook or supplemental
material, the publisher must make the amount of the change
in price, whether the price was increased or decreased, and
the date the price was changed available on their Web site.
5)Requires textbook publishers that sell bundled course
materials to make the college textbook and supplemental
material available unbundled and at separate prices.
6)Provides that if a faculty member or entity in charge of
selecting course materials requests a custom textbook or
bundle, the publisher is required to provide, in writing,
prior to accepting the order, the price of the custom textbook
or bundle.
7)Provides that any publisher that violates any of the
aforementioned may be enjoined by any superior court of
competent jurisdiction upon action for an injunction.
8)Provides that all of the aforementioned shall become operative
on July 1, 2010.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires textbook publishers, for textbooks published on or
after January 1, 2010, to print a summary of the substantive
content differences between the new edition and any prior
edition, as well as the copyright date of the previous
edition.
2)Requires the Board of Trustees of the California State
University (CSU), the Board of Governors of the California
Community Colleges (CCC), and requests the Board of Regents of
the University of California (UC) to work with academic
senates to encourage faculty to consider cost friendly
practices in assigning textbooks, to disclose to students how
the new editions of textbooks differ from previous editions
and the cost of the selected textbooks, to review procedures
for faculty to inform college and university bookstores to
textbook selections, and to encourage faculty to work closely
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with publishers and college and university bookstores in
creating economically sound bundles and packages.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS : Purpose of this bill: The author notes that recent
surveys by UC, the California Student Public Interest Research
Group (CALPIRG), and the Oregon Student Public Interest Research
Group (OSPIRG) show that a student now pays an average of $900 a
year for textbooks. CALPIRG recently found that 77% of faculty
reported publishers rarely or never provide the price of a book
during sales interactions. CALPIRG also reported that
approximately half of all textbooks are only provided in more
expensive "bundles," while two-thirds (65%) of professors
reported they "rarely" or "never" use the supplemental items in
the bundled materials.
Background on Federal Law: Several of the provisions contained
in this bill have recently been addressed by federal law. New
amendments to the Higher Education Opportunity Act, adopted in
August of 2008, require publishers to disclose textbook pricing
information, unbundled textbook options, and other related
information to faculty at institutions of higher education
receiving financial assistance from the federal government.
Related legislation: SB 216 (Liu), which was held in Senate
Appropriations Committee, would have required the CSU Board of
Trustees and the CCC Board of Governors, and requested the UC
Regents, to post a list of required textbooks for each course
for the coming term on their Internet websites not less than 30
days prior to the first day of class, including the price
charged by the campus bookstore for each required textbook. In
addition, SB 386 (Runner), which was held in the Senate
Appropriations Committee, would have required CCC and CSU
faculty, and requested UC faculty, to prepare a justification on
the adoption of a new edition of any textbook within three years
of a previous adoption.
Analysis Prepared by : Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960 FN:
0001981
SB 388
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