BILL NUMBER: AB 798 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 2, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 6, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Bonilla
FEBRUARY 26, 2015
An act to amend Section 69999.6 of, and to add and
repeal Part 40.1 (commencing with Section 67420) of Division 5 of
Title 3 of of, the Education Code,
relating to postsecondary education.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 798, as amended, Bonilla. College Textbook Affordability Act of
2015.
Existing
(1) Existing law establishes the
segments of the postsecondary education system in the state,
including the University of California, administered by the
Regents of the University of California, the California
State University, administered by the Trustees of the California
State University, and the California Community Colleges, administered
by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges.
This bill would establish the College Textbook Affordability Act
of 2015 to reduce costs for college students by encouraging faculty
to accelerate the adoption of lower cost, high-quality open
educational resources, as defined. The bill would provide
that funding for this act is to be provided in the annual Budget Act.
The bill would create the Open Educational Resources Adoption
Incentive Fund in the State Treasury to provide incentives and reward
campus and faculty efforts to accelerate the adoption of open
educational resources. The bill would require that moneys in the fund
be used by campuses to create and support faculty professional
development, open educational resource curation activities,
faculty release time, or technology support for the
faculty, faculty and students, as
specified. The bill would authorize the local academic senate of a
campus of the California State University or the California
Community Colleges to (1) adopt a local campus
resolution, in collaboration with students and the administration,
stating its intent to increase student access to high-quality open
educational resources. resources, and (2)
upon adoption of the resolution, develop a specified plan that
describes evidence of the campus's commitment and readiness to
spend grant money from the fund to support faculty adoption of open
educational resources. The bill would require the
respective segment office California Open Education
Resources Council to review and approve the resolution and
the plan , and, if they meet these and other specified
requirements, would authorize an initial grant of up to
$10,000 to a local campus of the California State
University or the California Community Colleges from the
fund for an unspecified amount for the purpose of
establishing a plan and strategy, as specified. fund.
The bill would require additional bonus grants of
unspecified amounts up to $10,000 to be
distributed to participating campuses if certain benchmarks are met.
The bill would require a grant recipient to report to its
respective segment office the California Open
Education Resources Council as to whether its benchmarks have
been reached and it is eligible for the bonus grants. The bill would
also require the Chancellor of the California Community
Colleges, the Chancellor of the California State University, and the
President of the University of California California
Open Education Resources Council to report to the Legislature
before July 1 of each year year, commencing
in 2018, as to whether the grants are increasing the rate of
adoption of open educational resources and decreasing textbook costs
for college students.
The bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2020,
and would repeal them as of January 1, 2021.
(2) Existing law appropriates, from specified funds, $5,000,000 to
the Chancellor of the California State University to fund, among
other things, the establishment and administration of the California
Open Education Resources Council and the California Digital Open
Source Library. Existing law reverts any of this $5,000,000 that is
not 100% matched by private funds to a specified trust.
This bill would specify that those funds may be used for purposes
of the College Textbook Affordability Act of 2015, and would specify
that funds appropriated for those purposes shall not be required to
be matched by private funds.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Part 40.1 (commencing with Section 67420) is added to
Division 5 of Title 3 of the Education Code, to read:
PART 40.1. College Textbook Affordability Act of 2015
67420. This part shall be known, and may be cited, as the College
Textbook Affordability Act of 2015.
67421. (a) The College
Textbook Affordability Act of 2015 is hereby established to reduce
costs for college students by encouraging faculty to accelerate the
adoption of lower cost, high-quality, open educational resources.
Faculty development shall be a key component of this acceleration
initiative. This initiative shall use, in addition to any other
appropriate resources, those identified, housed, produced, and
otherwise found appropriate pursuant to the California Open Education
Resources Council established in Section 66409 and the California
Digital Open Source Library established in Section 66408.
(b) Funding for this act shall be provided in the annual Budget
Act.
67422. (a) The Open Educational Resources Adoption Incentive Fund
is hereby created in the State Treasury to provide incentives and
reward campus and faculty efforts to accelerate adoption of open
educational resources for the purpose of reducing students' costs and
improving access to quality materials.
(b) Moneys in the fund shall be used used,
upon appropriation by the Legislature, by community
college, college and California State
University, and University of California University
campuses to create and support faculty professional
development, open educational resource curation activities,
faculty release time, technology support for the
faculty, faculty and students, or
some combination thereof. of these uses.
Moneys in the fund shall not be used for direct compensation
for faculty members who adopt open educational resources.
(c) For the purposes of this act, a "community college campus" is
a community college campus site that has a local academic senate.
67423. (a) As used in this part, "fund" shall mean the Open
Educational Resources Adoption Incentive Fund.
(b) As used in this part, "open educational resources"
mean are high-quality teaching, learning, and
research resources that reside in the public domain or have been
released under an intellectual property license that permits their
free use and repurposing by others. others,
and may include other resources that are legally available and free
of cost to students. "Open educational resources"
includes, but is include, but are not limited
to, full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, faculty
-created content, streaming videos, tests, software,
and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access
to knowledge.
67424. (a) The local academic senate of a campus of the
University of California, the California State
University, University or the California
Community Colleges may adopt a local campus resolution, in
collaboration with students and the administration, stating its
intent to increase student access to high-quality open educational
resources.
(b) Upon adoption of the local campus resolution, the
campus may submit the resolution to the respective segment office for
an initial grant from the fund to establish a plan and strategy for
accelerating adoption of high-quality open educational resources on
its campus, and developing the accompanying professional development.
the campus may develop a plan that describes evidence
of the campus's commitment and readiness to effectively spend grant
money from the fund to support faculty adoption of open educational
resources.
(1) The creation of the plan and strategy shall
be a collaboration between the campus academic senate and the
recognized campus student body organization.
organization, with input solicited by the campus academic senate or
the recognized campus student body organization from the local campus
bookstore. The California Open Education Resources Council,
established in Section 66409, may provide expertise on available open
educational resources and best practices for the adoption
of open educational resources for existing courses to assist in the
development of the plan .
(2) The strategy plan shall include
continued access to a hard copy of open educational resource
materials selected by faculty for use through the
local campus bookstore and shall ensure access to
materials offline for students.
(3) (A) Each plan shall include three benchmarks, focusing on
reducing costs for students and increasing the adoption of
high-quality open educational resources consisting of a year one
goal, a year two goal, and a year three goal.
(B) Each local campus shall determine its own benchmarks.
(C) Oversight of these benchmarks shall be provided when the
grants are approved by the respective segment office.
(4) Plans that utilize available open educational resources,
including, but not limited to, California Open Online Library for
Education (COOL4Ed) and Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning
and Online Teaching (MERLOT) shall receive priority for receiving
grants.
(c) (1) Each local campus may submit the resolution and the plan
developed pursuant to subdivisions (a) and (b) to the California Open
Education Resources Council for an initial grant from the fund.
(c)
(2) The respective segment office
California Open Education Resources Council shall review
the submitted resolution and plan and, if it
meets they meet the requirements of this part,
approve the resolution, and the initial grant shall be
administered by the designated segment office in collaboration with
the campus president, provost, or chief academic officer and the
recognized campus student body organization.
(1) The designated segment office for the California Community
Colleges may be the Success Center for California Community Colleges
or another appropriate office.
(2) The designated
segment office for the California State University may be the
Academic Technology Services or another appropriate office.
them.
(3) The An initial grant shall
be approved for not more than ____ not exceed
ten thousand dollars ($____).
($10,000).
(d) (1) Each year after a campus receives an initial grant, for up
to three years, the campus shall receive a bonus grant from the fund
for meeting established performance benchmarks for accelerating
usage of open educational resources in courses, according to the
following schedule:
(A) A campus shall receive a bonus grant of up to ____
ten thousand dollars ($____)
($10,000) for reaching its first benchmark in using open
educational resources on campus and decreasing textbook costs for
students in the first year of implementation.
(B) A campus shall receive a bonus grant of up to ____
ten thousand dollars ($____)
($10,000) for reaching its second benchmark in using open
educational resources on campus and decreasing textbook costs for
students in the second year of implementation.
(C) A campus shall receive a bonus grant of up to ____
ten thousand dollars ($____)
($10,000) for reaching its third benchmark in using open
educational resources on campus and decreasing textbook costs for
students in the third year of implementation. For bonus grants
issued for reaching the third benchmark, if applications exceed the
amount of available grant funds, priority shall be given by the
California Open Education Resources Council to plans submitted
pursuant to subdivision (c) that achieve cost savings for students
through collaborations with one or more campuses. These
collaborations may form within a segment, or across different
segments.
(2) The bonus grants shall be used for faculty professional
development, open educational resource curation activities,
technology support for the faculty, faculty
and students, faculty release time, or some combination
thereof, administered by the local academic senate in
collaboration with the campus president, provost, or chief academic
officer and the recognized campus student body organization.
of these uses.
(e) A grant recipient shall report to its respective
segment office the California Open Education Resources
Council as to whether its benchmarks have been reached and it
is eligible for bonus grants pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision
(d). This report shall include an explanation of how the
recipient used available open educational resources, including, but
not limited to, COOL4Ed and MERLOT, to accomplish its goals pursuant
to this part more efficiently.
(f) The Chancellor of the California Community Colleges,
the Chancellor of the California State University, and the President
of the University of California California Open
Education Resources Council shall report to the Legislature
before July 1 each year year, commencing in
2018, as to whether the grants are increasing the rate of
adoption of open educational resources and decreasing textbook costs
for college students.
( g) A local academic senate
of a campus of the California State University or the California
Community Colleges may commence its application by adopting
a local campus resolution as of January 1, 2016, pursuant to
subdivision (a). The California Open Education Resources Council
shall be ready to review grant applications on or before March 1,
2016.
67425. This part shall become inoperative on July 1, 2020, and,
as of January 1, 2021, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2021, deletes or
extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.
SEC. 2. Section 69999.6 of the Education
Code is amended to read:
69999.6. (a) In enacting this article, it is the intent of the
Legislature to accomplish all of the following:
(1) Provide explicit authority to the board to continue to
administer accounts for, and make awards to, persons who qualified
for awards under the provisions of the Governor's Scholarship
Programs as those provisions existed on January 1, 2003, prior to the
repeal of former Article 20 (commencing with Section 69995).
(2) Provide for the management and disbursement of funds
previously set aside for the scholarship programs authorized by
former Article 20 (commencing with Section 69995).
(3) Provide a guarantee should additional funds be needed to cover
awards authorized and made pursuant to former Article 20 (commencing
with Section 69995).
(b) The board may manage and disburse the funds previously set
aside for the scholarship programs authorized by former Article 20
(commencing with Section 69995).
(c) If a person has earned an award under the Governor's
Scholarship Programs on or before January 1, 2003, but has not
claimed the award on or before June 30, 2004, he or she still may
claim the award by a date that is five years from the first June 30
that fell after he or she took the qualifying test. An award shall
not be made by the board after that date.
(d) The board shall negotiate with the current manager of the
Governor's Scholarship Programs and execute an amended or new
management and funding agreement, before January 1, 2013, which shall
include, but not be limited to, all of the following:
(1) Terms providing for the return to the General Fund by no later
than January 1, 2013, of moneys appropriated to the Governor's
Scholarship Programs that are not anticipated to be needed to make
awards pursuant to paragraphs (1) and (2) of subdivision (a).
(2) Provisions that authorize the board to pay agreed-upon early
withdrawal penalties or fees.
(3) Terms that extend to the final date upon which the board may
withdraw funds for a person who earned an award under the Governor's
Scholarship Programs.
(e) (1) If funds retained in the Golden State Scholarshare Trust
after January 1, 2013, are insufficient to cover the remaining
withdrawal requests, it is the intent of the Legislature to
appropriate the necessary funds to the Golden State Scholarshare
Trust for the purpose of funding individual beneficiary accounts.
(2) The board shall notify the Department of Finance and the
Legislature no later than 10 working days after determining that a
shortfall in available funding described in paragraph (1) will occur.
(f) (1) Of the funds transferred to the General Fund pursuant to
paragraph (1) of subdivision (d), five million dollars ($5,000,000)
is hereby appropriated to the Chancellor of the California State
University, without regard to fiscal years, to fund the establishment
and administration of the California Open Education Resources
Council and the California Digital Open Source Library, and the
development or acquisition of open education resources, or any
combination thereof, pursuant to legislation enacted in the 2011-12
Regular Session of the Legislature, provided that the
or for the funding of grants and administrative costs
pursuant to the College Textbook Affordability Act of 2015 (Part 40.1
(commencing with Section 67420) of Division 5). The chancellor
may provide reimbursement to the California Community Colleges and
the University of California for costs those segments, or their
representatives, incur in association with the activities described
in this paragraph.
(2) (A) Moneys, or a portion of moneys,
appropriated pursuant to paragraph (1) shall not be encumbered unless
at least 100 percent of that amount encumbered is matched by private
funds. Moneys appropriated pursuant to paragraph (1) that are not
matched by private funds shall revert to the Golden State
Scholarshare Trust for purposes of the Governor's Scholarship
Programs.
(B) Notwithstanding subparagraph (A), moneys appropriated for
purposes of the College Textbook Affordability Act shall not be
required to be matched by private funds.
(g) The board may adopt rules and regulations for the
implementation of this article.