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: 9/9/15 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 Student 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 9/9/15 clarify that the funds reappropriated for the Open Educational Resources Adoption Incentive Program do not require matching private funds. AB 798 Page 2 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) 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 AB 798 Page 3 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 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. AB 798 Page 4 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 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. AB 798 Page 5 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 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 AB 798 Page 6 to members of the California Open Education Resources Council, as specified. 14)Clarifies that the funds reappropriated for the Open Educational Resources Adoption Incentive Program do not require matching private funds. 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. 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 AB 798 Page 7 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 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. AB 798 Page 8 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: (Verified9/9/15) 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: (Verified9/9/15) 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, 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 AB 798 Page 9 9/10/15 23:15:35 **** END ****