Amended in Senate August 17, 2015

Amended in Senate July 1, 2015

Amended in Assembly June 2, 2015

Amended in Assembly April 6, 2015

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 798

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, the Education Code, relating to postsecondary education.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 798, as amended, Bonilla. College Textbook Affordability Act of 2015.

(1) Existing law establishes the segments of the postsecondary education system in the state, including 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 create the Open Educational Resources Adoption Incentive Fund in the State Treasury to provide incentives and reward campus, staff, 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 and staff professional development, open educational resource curation activities, curriculum modification, or technology support for faculty, staff, 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, 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 California Open Education Resources Council to review and approve the plan, and, if it meets these and other specified requirements, would authorize the respective segment office for the campus to award an initial grant of up to $10,000 to the campus from the fund. begin insert The bill would authorize a campus to submit a number plans for approval that would be determined in accordance with the number of students enrolled on the campus, except as provided. end insert The bill would require additional bonus grants of up to $10,000 to be distributed to participating campuses if certain benchmarks are met. The bill would cap the number of plans that may be approved by the California Open Education Resources Council each award begin delete year at 100. end delete begin insert year, as specified. end insert The bill would require a grant recipient to report to the California Open Education Resources Council begin insert within 90 days after the end date for each year of each awarded grant end insert as to whether its benchmarks have been reached to determine whether it is eligible for the bonus grants. The bill would require the Intersegmental Committee of Academic Senates to report to the Legislature before July 1 of each 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. begin insert The bill would specify that the annual costs for the California Open Online Library for Education and administrative support for the California Open Education Resources Council shall not exceed $140,000 annually. end insert

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.  

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.

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) (1) Moneys in the fund shall be used, upon appropriation
by the Legislature, by community college and California State
University campuses to create and support any, or some
combination, of the following purposes:

(A) Faculty professional begin delete development. end delete begin insert development about open
educational resources. end insert

(B) Professional development for staff whose work relates to
the use of, or student access to, open educational resources.

(C) Open educational resource curation activities.

(D) Curriculum begin delete modification. end delete begin insert modification for the adoption of
open educational resources as course materials. end insert

(E) Technology support for faculty, students, and staff whose
work relates to the use of, or student access to, open educational
resources.

(2) Moneys in the fund shall not be used for direct compensation
for faculty members who adopt open educational resources or for
purchasing new equipment.

(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” are
high-quality teaching, learning, and research resources that reside
in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual
property begin delete license end delete begin insert license, such as a Creative Commons license, end insert that
permits their free use and repurposing by others, and may include
other resources that are legally available and free of cost to
students. “Open educational resources” 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
California State 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 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.
The California Open Education Resources Council may provide
a model plan to campuses.

(1) The creation of the plan shall be a collaboration between
the campus academic senate and the recognized campus student
body organization, if the recognized campus student body
organization wants to be involved, with input solicited by the
campus academic senate or the recognized campus student body
organization from the local campus begin delete bookstore. end delete begin insert bookstore, including
regarding open educational resources distribution, or campus
centers and libraries supporting faculty professional development
for the adoption of open educational resources. end insert 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 plan shall include continued access to open educational
resource materials selected by faculty for use through either the
availability of a begin delete hard copy end delete begin insert hardcopy end insert at the local campus bookstore
or access to materials begin delete on PDF to print end delete on campus, and shall ensure
access to materials begin insert in formats that can be printed end insert 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.

(4) Each plan that demonstrates the following readiness
requirements shall be given priority for approval in accordance
with paragraph (2) of subdivision (c):

(A) A plan with concrete benchmarks that demonstrate
quantifiable outcomes to be achieved from its implementation,
including, but not limited to, an estimate of the range of money to
be saved per student from the plan’s implementation.

(B) A plan that utilizes 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).

begin delete

(C) A plan that provides an estimate of the amount of money
to be saved per student from the plan’s implementation.

end delete begin delete

(D)

end delete

begin insert (C) end insert  A plan that provides an estimate of the number of academic
departments expected to be involved in the plan’s implementation.

begin delete

(E)

end delete

begin insert (D) end insert  A plan that describes how existing faculty development
programs will be enhanced by the plan’s implementation.

begin delete

(F)

end delete

begin insert (E) end insert  A plan that provides an assessment of the costs for students
to purchase course materials, as begin insert may be end insert determined by begin insert consulting
with end insert the California Open Education Resources Council.

(c) (1)  begin insert (A) end insert begin insert   end insert 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.

begin insert

(B) Except as provided in subparagraph (C), each year, each
campus may submit one plan for an initial grant, and may submit
one additional plan for every additional 10,000 students, regardless
of full-time or part-time status.

end insert begin insert

(C) A local campus that is currently receiving a grant or bonus
grant pursuant to this part may submit no more than the maximum
number of plans for an initial grant under subparagraph (B) minus
the number of the campus’ plans that are currently receiving a
grant or bonus grant.

end insert

(2) The California Open Education Resources Council shall
review the submitted plan and, if it meets the requirements of this
part, approve it.

(3) Plans shall be submitted and approved in one of two rounds.
Plans submitted from October 2 to April 1, inclusive, of each
academic year shall be reviewed as round one plans. Plans
submitted from April 2 to October 1, inclusive, of a calendar year
shall be reviewed as round two plans.

(4) The California Open Education Resources Council shall
approve up to 100 plans per year. A plan not approved in a round
may be resubmitted by the campus for approval in future rounds,
as determined by the California Open Education Resources
Council. begin delete Each campus may only have one plan approved for
purposes of the grant program. end delete begin insert For a plan that is not approved,
the council shall recommend modifications to increase the
likelihood of the plan’s success if it is approved in a subsequent
round. end insert

(5) Each plan approved by the California Open Education
Resources Council shall be submitted by the council to the
appropriate segment office. The segment office shall award grants
to recipients in accordance with this begin delete section. end delete begin insert section and in
accordance with each system’s policies and procedures for
approving and administering grants. end insert

(6) Administrative support may be provided to the council by
COOL4Ed to help the council carry out its duties in accordance
with this part.

(7) An initial grant shall 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.

begin insert

(2) A plan that has not met a benchmark shall not be awarded
any bonus grant and shall be deemed terminated, and that plan
shall not count toward the maximum number of plans a campus
may submit each year pursuant to subdivision (c).

end insert begin delete

(2)

end delete

begin insert (3) end insert  If money is available in the Open Educational Resources
Adoption Incentive Fund after the first bonus grants for reaching
the third benchmark pursuant to subparagraph (C) of paragraph
(1) are awarded, additional bonus grants shall be made available
to recipients, as determined by the segment offices, in consultation
with the California Open Education Resources Council, until there
is no money left in the fund.

begin delete

(3)

end delete

begin insert (4) end insert  The bonus grants shall be used for any, or some combination,
of the following purposes:

(A) Faculty professional development.

(B) Professional development of staff whose work relates to the
use of, or student access to, open educational resources.

(C) Open educational resource curation activities.

(D) Curriculum begin delete modification. end delete begin insert modification for the adoption of
open educational resources as course materials. end insert

(E) Technology support for faculty, students, and staff whose
work relates to the use of, or student access to, open educational
resources.

(e) A grant recipient shall report to the California Open
Education Resources Council as to whether its benchmarks have
been reached to determine whether 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. begin insert Campus reports on their projects are due to the
California Open Educational Resources Council within 90 days
after the end date for each year of each awarded grant. end insert

(f) The Intersegmental Committee of Academic Senates shall
report to the Legislature before July 1 each 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, 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 of 2015
shall not be required to be matched by private funds. begin insert The California
Open Online Library for Education (COOL4Ed) shall be funded,
with no private match required, to continue developing and
updating its services to provide faculty, staff, and students
convenient access to free and open course materials and for the
administrative support for the California Open Educational
Resources Council. The annual costs for COOL4Ed services and
administrative support shall not exceed one hundred forty thousand
dollars ($140,000) annually. The amount of funding shall be
approved by California State University and California Community
College segment administrators in the respective chancellor’s
office. end insert

(C) Twenty-five percent of each grant awarded to a campus
begin insert pursuant to the College Textbook Affordability Act of 2015 end insert shall
be matched by the campus and used by the campus to ensure
administrative and faculty support of the campus’ plan that was
submitted and approved in accordance with Section 67424.

(D) Money provided to a member of the California Open
Education Resources Council for purposes of the council carrying
out its duties in accordance with this part shall not exceed begin delete three end delete
begin insert eight end insert thousand dollars begin delete ($3,000) end delete begin insert ($8,000) end insert total begin insert per year end insert and shall
be provided as a stipend. No additional money shall be provided
for travel purposes.

(g) The board may adopt rules and regulations for the
implementation of this article.