BILL ANALYSIS Ó
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 798|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 798
Author: Bonilla (D)
Amended: 9/4/15 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 7-0, 7/8/15
AYES: Liu, Runner, Hancock, Leyva, Monning, Pan, Vidak
NO VOTE RECORDED: Block, Mendoza
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/27/15
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 6/4/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: College Textbook Affordability Act of 2015
SOURCE: California State Students Association
DIGEST: This bill establishes, until July 1, 2020, the Open
Educational Resources Adoption Incentive Program incentivize
increased adoption of open educational resources at campuses of
the California Community Colleges (CCC) and the California State
University (CSU).
Senate Floor Amendments of 9/4/15 amendments make various
changes regarding the requirements for participating in the Open
Educational Resources Adoption Incentive Program, including the
provision of specific criteria to be included as part of a local
AB 798
Page 2
campus' resolution and plan. The amendments also limit the
total amount of initial grants to be awarded at $2 million and
provide that if the amount requested exceeds this total, the
grant applications shall be approved on a competitive basis.
Further, the amendments limit and modify the criteria for the
receipt of bonus grants for applicants.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Requires the CSU Trustees and the CCC Board of Governors, and
requests the Regents of the University of California (UC) to
work with the academic senates to encourage faculty to give
consideration to the least costly practices in assigning
textbooks and to encourage faculty to disclose to students how
new editions of textbooks are different from previous
editions. Existing law also urges textbook publishers to
provide information to faculty when they are considering what
textbooks to order, and to post information on the publishers'
Web sites, including "an explanation of how the newest edition
is different from previous editions." In addition, publishers
are 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. (Education Code § 66406)
2)Creates the College Textbook Transparency Act which requires
faculty members and academic departments at an institution of
higher education to consider cost in the adoption of textbooks
and also requires textbook publishers to disclose specified
information. (EC § 66406.7)
AB 798
Page 3
3)Establishes the California Digital Open Source Library
administered by the CSU, in coordination with the CCC, for the
purpose of housing open source materials while providing an
internet web-based way for students, faculty, and staff to
easily find, adopt, utilize, or modify course materials for
little or no cost. Specifies that the CSU shall also act in
coordination with the UC in administering the California
Digital Open Source Library. (EC § 66408)
4)Establishes the California Open Educational Resources Council,
composed of faculty leaders from the CCC, CSU, and UC, and
administered by the Intersegmental Committee of the Academic
Senates of these segments of public postsecondary education,
or a successor group. Provides that the Council shall be
responsible for the development of a list of 50 strategically
selected lower division courses in the public postsecondary
segments for which high-quality, affordable, digital open
source textbooks and related materials shall be developed or
acquired. (EC § 66409)
5)Requires, by January 1, 2020, publishers of textbooks used at
the UC, CSU, and the 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. (EC § 66410)
This bill:
1)Establishes 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 (OERs). Provides that faculty
development shall be a key component of this initiative, and
requires the initiative to utilize the resources identified,
housed, produced, and otherwise found appropriate pursuant to
the California Open Education Resources Council and the
California Digital Open Source Library.
2)Establishes the Open Educational Resources Adoption Incentive
AB 798
Page 4
Program and provides that the funds appropriated pursuant to
Education Code § 69999.6 are available for its purposes,
including faculty professional development, professional
development for staff, OER curation activities, curriculum
modification and requisite release time for faculty, and
technology support, as specified.
3)Provides that the funds appropriated for the program shall not
be used for direct compensation for faculty members who adopt
OERs.
4)Defines OERs as 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, and may include
other resources that are legally available and free of cost to
students.
5)Requires a local academic senate of a campus to adopt a local
resolution and submit a plan, as specified, in collaboration
with students and campus administration that describes
evidence of the faculty's commitment and readiness to
effectively use grant funds to support faculty adoption of
OERs. Among other requirements, the plan shall include the
number of academic departments expected to be involved, the
number of course sections in which OERs will be adopted, and
the percentage of cost savings for students anticipated for
each of these course sections.
6)Requires the plan to identify the amount of the grant
requested and provides that the amount shall not be greater
than $50,000. Requires the plan to commit to achieving
greater than 30 percent cost savings in at least 10 course
sections, and specifies how the savings are to be calculated.
7)Provides that grant applicants may submit the resolution and
the plan developed to the California Open Education Resources
Council as its application for an initial grant no later than
June 30, 2016. Requires the California Open Education
AB 798
Page 5
Resources Council to make an initial grant to an applicant
within 60 days if the applicant has satisfied all requirements
and provides that it may award up to 100 initial grants. If
the total amount requested is equal to or less than $2 million
dollars, the California Open Education Resources Council shall
make grants for each approved application based on the amount
requested. If the total amount requested exceeds $2 million,
the California Open Education Resources Council shall make
grants for the full amount requested in approved applications
on a competitive basis based on the strength of the evidence
provided of faculty commitment to the adoption of OERs.
8)Provides that each approved application shall be submitted to
the Chancellor of the California State University within 30
days, who shall then award the grants to recipients. Allows
administrative support to be provided, as specified.
9)Provides that no later than June 30, 2018, a campus may apply
for a bonus grant equal to the amount of its initial grant and
shall include evidence that the campus has met or exceeded
total cost savings of greater than 30 percent for the required
number of course sections specified in the approved plan for
the campus' initial grant in the 2017-18 academic year.
Allows a campus to compute the total cost savings for each
course section. Requires the bonus grants to be used to
further the goals of the campus' approved plan for its initial
grant.
10)Provides that if the total amount requested for bonus grants
exceeds the total amount of funds available, the California
Open Educational Resources Council shall award the grants on a
competitive basis for the full amount based on the overall
percentage savings achieved by the initial plan in the courses
covered by the plan.
11)Requires the California Open Online Library for Education, in
consultation with the Intersegmental Committee of Academic
Senates, to report to the Legislature before September of each
year, commencing in 2018, as to whether the grants are
increasing the rate of adoption of OERs and decreasing
AB 798
Page 6
textbook costs for college students.
12)Provides that the bill's provisions shall become inoperative
on July 1, 2020.
13)Reappropriates $3 million of the funds appropriated pursuant
to Education Code § 69999.6 to the Chancellor of the
California State University without regard to fiscal year, for
allocation for the Open Educational Resources Adoption
Incentive Program. Allows up to $200,000 to be used for
administrative costs and up to $27,000 to be used for stipends
to members of the California Open Education Resources Council,
as specified.
Comments
Need for the bill. According to the author's office, "many
students and families are struggling to pay for a college
education. One part of this problem is the rising cost of
textbooks. Every year, students pay around $1,300 for textbooks
as prices have increased at over three times the rate of
inflation. The cost of textbooks comprises 40 percent of
tuition at a two-year community college and 13 percent at a
four-year public school. To afford these costs, students take
on more debt, work more hours, or make choices that hinder their
academic success." This bill is intended to save college
students money by providing incentives for local campuses to
adopt OERs and reduce the cost of textbooks.
Open educational resources. OERs are educational materials that
include 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, reuse, remix, or
redistribute the materials. According to a 2012 policy brief by
the Center for American Progress and EDUCAUSE, digital OERs
offer many advantages over traditional textbooks, such as
allowing students and faculty to access textbooks and related
materials for free online or the purchase of hardcopies that are
more affordable than traditional textbooks. They also enable
faculty to customize learning materials to suit their course
objectives and can provide students with a more flexible set of
tools that can contribute to a richer learning experience.
AB 798
Page 7
The California Open Education Resources Council reports that it
has thus far selected the 50 courses, identified more than 150
appropriate OERs for said courses, developed a standardized peer
review and approval process, and recruited faculty to conduct
the reviews. As of March 2015, the California Open Education
Resources Council reports that reviews are completed for 10
courses, involving 34 OER textbooks.
Cost of textbooks. According to the College Board, the average
undergraduate student should budget between $1,200 and $1,300
for textbooks and supplies each year. That figure is as much as
40 percent of tuition at a two-year community college and 13
percent at a four-year public institution. A 2014 Student
Public Interest Research Group study found that 65 percent of
students skipped buying or renting a textbook because it was too
expensive, and 94 percent of those students felt that in doing
so, that would hurt their grade in a course. Additionally,
almost half of the students reported that the cost of textbooks
impacted how many courses they were able to take at a time.
Incentives for faculty. One could argue the bill is unnecessary
since faculty already have the ability to adopt OERs. The
author's office indicates that the main hurdles preventing the
adoption of OERs include lack of time for faculty to develop
them or to adapt their classes, lack of information on currently
available OERs, and lack of technological support for faculty.
According to a presentation by faculty and administrators
working on the development and implementation of Multimedia
Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching,
professors are not adopting OERs quickly because they do not
know what is available or believe it will be difficult to do.
The bill seeks to address these hurdles by leveraging existing
funds to provide the time and support for faculty to adopt OERs.
Specifically, the bill provides yearly benchmark incentives to
accelerate the rate of adoption at local campuses.
Source of funding. SB 1052 (Steinberg, Chapter 621, Statutes of
2012) established the California OER Council, to develop a list
of 50 lower division courses across the three segments for which
high-quality, affordable digital open source textbooks and
related material shall be developed or acquired, to create and
administer a review and approval process for open source
materials, and to establish a competitive request-for-proposal
AB 798
Page 8
process in which faculty members, publishers, and other
interested parties would apply for funds to produce 50
high-quality, affordable, digital open source textbooks and
related materials. An appropriation of $5 million was provided
for this effort, to be matched by nonstate funds. This bill
proposes to utilize unspent funds from this appropriation for
its purposes.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, the expansion
of the use of previously appropriated funds will allow
expenditure of approximately $3 million in unspent funds from
the initial appropriation.
SUPPORT: (Verified9/8/15)
California State Student Association (source)
Academic Senate for California Community Colleges
California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office
California State University
Cerritos Community College District
Community College League of California
OpenStax
TechNet
OPPOSITION: (Verified9/8/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 6/4/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd,
Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
AB 798
Page 9
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Dahle, Holden
Prepared by:Lenin Del Castillo / ED. / (916) 651-4105
9/8/15 15:02:50
**** END ****