BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  SB 1052
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          Date of Hearing:   July 3, 2012

                       ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
                                 Marty Block, Chair
                   SB 1052 (Steinberg) - As Amended:  May 29, 2012

           SENATE VOTE  :   32-3
           
          SUBJECT  :   Public postsecondary education: California Open 
          Education Resources Council.

           SUMMARY  :   Establishes the nine-member California Open Education 
          Resources Council (COERC) that will be responsible for a variety 
          of tasks geared toward reducing textbook costs for the 50 most 
          widely taken lower division courses.  Specifically,  this bill  :   


          1)Establishes the COERC, to be administered by the 
            Intersegmental Committee of the Academic Senates of the 
            University of California (UC), California State University 
            (CSU), and California Community Colleges (CCC) or a successor 
            agency, with the following membership:  

             a)   Three UC faculty selected by the UC Academic Senate,

             b)   Three CSU faculty selected by the CSU Academic Senate, 
               and,

             c)   Three CCC faculty selected by the CCC Academic Senate.

          2)Requires the COERC to do all of the following:  

             a)   Develop a list of the 50 most widely taken lower 
               division courses in the public postsecondary education 
               segments,  

             b)   Create and administer a standardized, rigorous review 
               and approval process for open source materials developed 
               pursuant to this legislation,  

             c)   Promote strategies for the production, access, and use 
               of open source materials, and,  

             d)   Require publishers of textbooks used in the 50 most 
               widely taken lower division courses to, as a condition of 








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               the purchase of textbooks, to provide the campus with at 
               least three copies of the textbook at no cost, for 
               placement on reserve at the campus library.  

          3)Requires the COERC to establish a competitive bid process in 
            which faculty members, publishers, and other interested 
            parties may apply for funds to produce 50 high-quality 
            affordable, digital open source textbooks and related 
            materials in 2013.  

          4)Requires textbooks and other materials produced to be:

             a)   Placed under a creative commons attribution license that 
               allows others to use, distribute, and create derivative 
               works based upon the digital material while still allowing 
               the authors or creators to receive credit for their 
               efforts.  

             b)   Modular in order to allow easy customization and be 
               encoded in an Extensible Markup Language format or other 
               successor format so that the materials can be made 
               available on a wide range of platforms.  

             c)   Submitted to and housed within the California Open 
               Source Digital Library when and if that library is 
               established pursuant to statute.

          5)Expresses legislative findings and declarations relating to 
            the cost of college and university textbooks.  

          6)Becomes operative only if funds are appropriated in the Budget 
            Act or if federal or private funds are made available, or any 
            combination thereof.

           EXISTING LAW  :

          1)Requires, by January 1, 2020, publishers of textbooks used at 
            UC, CSU, CCC, or private postsecondary educational 
            institutions, to the extent practicable, to make textbooks 
            available in whole or in part for sale in an electronic format 
            and requires the electronic format to contain the same content 
            as the printed version.  (Education Code § 66410)  

          2)Establishes the College Textbook Transparency Act ƯAB 1548 
            (Solorio), Chapter 574, Statutes of 2008], which requires 








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            faculty members and academic departments at an institution of 
            higher education to consider cost in the adoption of 
            textbooks, and requires textbook publishers to disclose 
            specified information.  (EC § 66406.7)  

          3)Requires the CSU Board of Trustees and the CCC Board of 
            Governors, and requests the UC Board of Regents, to work with 
            their academic senates to encourage faculty to give 
            consideration to the least costly practices in assigning 
            textbooks, to encourage faculty to disclose to students how 
            new editions of textbooks are different from previous editions 
            and the cost to students for textbooks selected, among other 
            things.  Existing law also urges textbook publishers to 
            provide information to faculty when they are considering which 
            textbooks to order, and to post information on the publishers' 
            Web sites, as specified.  Publishers are also asked to 
            disclose to faculty the length of time they intend to produce 
            the current edition and provide faculty free copies of each 
            textbook selected.  (EC § 66406)  

           FISCAL EFFECT  :   This bill was keyed non-fiscal after recent 
          amendments, since its implementation is depending on a budget 
          appropriation or private funds.  However, according to the 
          according to the Senate Appropriations Committee's analysis, 
          this bill will result in substantial one-time costs for COERC 
          activities and significant on-going costs to maintain and update 
          digital files, as follows:

          1)COERC:  The scope of the COERC costs will depend on the degree 
            to which the workload can be absorbed by existing staff to the 
            ICAS.  At a minimum, there will be significant costs to staff 
            the COERC to complete the required activities, to create and 
            execute the competitive bid process, to create contracts with 
            the entities that ultimately produce the content, and to 
            establish procedures for segment use of the final products.

          2)Digital textbooks:  The state will pay for the 
            creation/procurement of 50 high-quality, open source, digital 
            textbooks.  The specific costs will be driven by the market 
            for the 50 courses for which textbooks will be sought.  These 
            digital files will be stored and administered on an ongoing 
            basis, as is detailed in a companion bill SB 1053 (Steinberg). 


          3)Revenue loss:  Upon implementation, there will likely be a 








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            significant loss of state sales tax revenues to the extent 
            that students were previously purchasing textbooks for the 50 
            courses from sales tax-generating businesses in California.  
            Additionally, there will likely be a substantial revenue loss 
            to campus bookstores, which are often self-supporting and, in 
            some cases, support other campus activities.

           COMMENTS  :   Background  .  Several reports throughout the last 
          decade have noted the increasing cost of college textbooks.  For 
          example, the California State Auditor released a report entitled 
          "Affordability of College Textbooks" (2008) that identified 
          publishers, campus bookstores, and faculty members as 
          responsible parties needing to work together to reduce costs and 
          properly disclose textbook information to students.  

          In response, California and the federal government enacted laws 
          to provide greater information to faculty and students about 
          textbook prices and options, differences in new editions, and to 
          provide supplements instead of new editions; to encourage the 
          timely adoption of textbooks by faculty; and to ensure faculty 
          choose lower cost textbook options.  A report on the 
          implementation of the federal laws is due in July 2013.

           Need for the bill  .  According to the author, the cost of 
          textbooks represents a significant burden to students and 
          families.  The author sites a recent report by the CSU 
          Chancellor's office that estimates CSU students pay 
          approximately $1,000 per year for textbooks.  The author also 
          notes a finding by the CCC Academic Senate that the cost of 
          educational materials has become a "visible barrier to college 
          attendance for many students."  The author maintains that the 
          old model of rigid, printed textbooks and related materials can 
          fall short in providing flexible and dynamic teaching tools 
          necessary to maximize student success.  This bill attempts to 
          address those costs for the 50 most common lower division 
          courses by requiring the availability of textbooks for those 
          courses to be available on reserve at the campus library and by 
          enabling instructional materials for those courses to be 
          available through Open Education Resources.  

           Open Education Resources  .  Open Education Resources (OER) are 
          educational materials such as textbooks, research articles, 
          videos, assessments, or simulations that are either licensed 
          under an open copyright license or are in the public domain.  
          OERs provide no-cost access and no-cost permission to revise, 








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          reuse, remix, or redistribute the materials.  

          Beginning with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 
          1999, several higher education institutions have initiated OER 
          efforts.  In California, the Foothill-De Anza Community College 
          District received a one-time grant from the William and Flora 
          Hewlett Foundation in 2003, and created freely available course 
          materials for eight college courses using a mixture of open 
          education resource and conventional commercial learning 
          materials; however, this project has not been maintained due to 
          a lack of funding.  

           Issues to consider  .

           1)Scope  .  This bill tasks the COERC with identifying the 50 most 
            widely taken lower division course in the public postsecondary 
            segments and producing 50 high-quality, affordable, digital 
            open source textbooks and related materials in 2013.   Course 
            offering among campuses vary widely, especially among CCCs.  
            Should the focus be on the most widely used textbooks, rather 
            than courses, and should the price of the textbook, as well as 
            its popularity, be a deciding factor?  Are career technical 
            education courses included, since textbooks in these areas 
            tend to be more expensive?  Is 50 the right number, or should 
            the number be determined by the COERC?  Finally, recognizing 
            that the cost of textbooks has increased for students at 
            private institutions, should the COERC also include faculty 
            representing the independent colleges and universities?

           2)Textbook reserve requirements  .  This bill would prohibit 
            public postsecondary education institutions from purchasing 
            textbooks for one of the 50 most widely taken lower division 
            courses unless the publisher places at least three free copies 
            of the textbook on reserve at the campus library.  Some type 
            of verification process would be needed to ensure that the 
            publisher had provided the free copies before a campus 
            bookstore could complete the faculty order.  What impact would 
            this have on the timely ability of bookstores to stock 
            textbooks?  What if the publisher refuses to provide the 
            copies?  Is three the right number?  A very small off-campus 
            center may only have 30 students enrolled in one freshman 
            English course, while a very large campus might offer multiple 
            sections, taught by faculty who might each select different 
            textbooks.  









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           3)Timeframe/report  .  This bill does not include a timeframe for 
            COERC to accomplish the required deliverables or a report on 
            the COERC's progress and results.  The Committee suggests a 
            progress report to the Legislature and Administration by July 
            1, 2014, and a final report by January 1, 2016.

           4)Sustainability .   For OER to be useful it must be current.  
            How will the OER developed under this bill be kept current, 
            and how will this effort be funded?

           Related and prior legislation  .  This bill is a companion to SB 
          1053 (Steinberg), also scheduled to be heard in this Committee 
          on July 3.  SB 1053 would establish the California Digital Open 
          Source Library, to be jointly administered by UC, CSU, and CCC 
          for the purpose of housing open source materials.  SB 1053 
          becomes operative only if SB 1052 is enacted.  

          SB 48 (Alquist), Chapter 161, Statutes of 2009, required any 
          individual firm, partnership, or corporation that offers 
          textbooks for sale at UC, CSU, the CCC, or a private 
          postsecondary education institution in California, to the extent 
          practicable, make them available for sale in electronic format 
          by January 1, 2020.    

          AB 1548 (Solorio), Chapter 574, Statutes of 2007, established 
          the College Textbook Transparency Act requiring the disclosure 
          of specified information and requiring faculty to follow 
          specified practices in the sale and purchase of textbooks.  

          AB 577 (Ruskin) of 2007, which was held under submission on the 
          Senate Appropriations Suspense File, would have establishes a 
          three-year pilot program at Foothill-DeAnza Community College 
          District to train faculty and staff from CCC districts statewide 
          with the information and methods to establish OER centers.

           REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION  :

           Support 
           
          California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office
          California Public Interest Research Group
          California State Student Association
          California State University
          California Teachers Association
          Campaign for College Opportunity








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          Coast Community College
          Community College League of California
          Student Senate for California Community Colleges
          University of California Student Association
           
            Opposition 
           
          Association of American Publishers, Inc.


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916) 
          319-3960