BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1914 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 1914 (Bonilla) As Amended May 27, 2016 Majority vote ------------------------------------------------------------------ |Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------| |Higher |13-0 |Medina, Baker, Bloom, | | |Education | |Chávez, Irwin, | | | | |Jones-Sawyer, Levine, | | | | |Linder, Low, Olsen, | | | | |Santiago, Weber, | | | | |Williams | | | | | | | |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------| |Appropriations |20-0 |Gonzalez, Bigelow, | | | | |Bloom, Bonilla, | | | | |Bonta, Calderon, | | | | |Chang, Daly, Eggman, | | | | |Gallagher, Eduardo | | | | |Garcia, Roger | | | | |Hernández, Holden, | | | | |Jones, Obernolte, | | | | |Quirk, Santiago, | | | | |Wagner, Weber, Wood | | | | | | | | | | | | AB 1914 Page 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------ SUMMARY: Requires respective academic senates of campuses of the California State University (CSU) and the University of California (UC), to develop policies regarding required academic materials in order to encourage efforts to reduce redundancy in the delivery of academic materials, including, but not necessarily limited to, textbooks and access codes. Specifically, this bill: 1)Expresses the intent of the Legislature that the faculty of the public postsecondary segments be encouraged to continue their commitment to making academic materials affordable by considering free or inexpensive options, including open access options, in selecting academic materials to assign to their students. 2)Requires respective academic senates of campuses of the CSU and the UC, in collaboration with students and campus administrators, to develop policies regarding required academic materials in order to encourage efforts to reduce redundancy in the delivery of academic materials, including, but not necessarily limited to, textbooks and access codes. 3)Specifies that the policies adopted shall include, but not necessarily be limited to, all of the following: a) Guidelines prioritizing the use of ancillary and additional academic platforms and materials, but not including textbooks, already available to enrolled students that are determined by faculty to serve the requirements of a course of study at no additional cost to enrolled students on their campuses or to the campus itself; AB 1914 Page 3 b) A requirement that the cost of academic materials from the current semester be provided to faculty members by the campus bookstore when academic materials are being chosen for an upcoming academic term or, if available; c) The establishment, in consultation with the campus bookstore, of deadlines by the campus for a faculty member or academic department to notify the campus bookstore of required and recommend textbooks and other instructional material so that the bookstore may verify availability, source, and lower cost options when practicable, and provide this information to faculty for consideration when exploring alternatives; and, d) A determination, in consultation with the campus bookstore, of approved descriptors to post next to academic materials offered for sale at the campus bookstore, including a requirement that the bookstore clearly identify any recommended course materials that are suggested by the bookstore but not by the faculty member who assigned the materials. 4)Requires the CSU Board of Trustees and requests the UC Regents to, review and adopt the policies developed, as specified, for their respective campuses. 5)Defines "access code" as an identification number or password, or both, that is used to gain access to digital content. 6)Specifies that the definition of "textbook" has the same meaning, as defined in Section 66406.7 of the Education Code (EC). AB 1914 Page 4 7)Specifies that "function" includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the submission of assignments, collection of grades, and communication between faculty members and students. EXISTING LAW: 1)Requires the CSU Trustees and the California Community College (CCC) Board of Governors, and requests the UC Regents to work with the 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. Current 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." 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 Section 66406). 2)Establishes the College Textbook Transparency Act, which, among others: a) Defines "textbook" as a book that contains printed material and is intended for use as a source of study material for a class or group of students, a copy of which is expected to be available for the use of each of the students in that class or group, specifying that "textbook" does not include a novel; AB 1914 Page 5 b) Defines "adopter" as any faculty member or academic department or other adopting entity at an institution of higher education responsible for considering and choosing course materials to be used in connection with the accredited courses taught at that institution; c) Encourages adopters to consider cost in the adoption of textbooks; and, d) Requires each campus bookstore at any public postsecondary educational institution to post in its store or on its Internet Web site a disclosure of its retail pricing policy on new and used textbooks (EC Section 66406.7). 3)Requires, as of January 1, 2020, any person, firm or corporation that publishes textbooks offered for sale at the UC, CSU, CCC, or a private college or university, to make the textbooks available for sale in electronic format (EC Section 66410). 4)Establishes the College Textbook Affordability Act, which, among others: a) Encourages faculty to accelerate the adoption of lower cost, high-quality, open educational resources in order to reduce costs for college students; b) Establishes the Open Educational Resources Adoption Incentive Program ; and, AB 1914 Page 6 c) Defines "open educational resources" as high-quality teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license, such as a Creative Commons 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 (EC Section 67421, et seq.). FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee: 1)CSU. Adopting and implementing the new policies at the CSU, assuming $5,000 per campus, would cost $115,000 (General Fund) annually. This would include coordination among staff to ensure awareness of the policy, provide the required information, and ensure compliance with posting requirements. 2)UC. Minor and absorbable costs. COMMENTS: Cost of instructional materials. According to the February 2015 Student Public Interest Research Groups (Student PIRGs) report, entitled, "Open Textbooks: The Billion-Dollar Solution," the cost of a college degree has increased significantly over the past decade. The report finds that, as of 2013, seven in 10 seniors at public and private nonprofit colleges, graduated with student loan debt; and, that as a nation, Americans hold over $1 trillion in student loan debt. Additionally, the report finds that, during the same time that the cost of obtaining a college degree increased, college textbook costs have skyrocketed. Though textbooks do not represent the majority of costs in pursuing a college degree, they are one of the largest out-of-pocket expenses that students face each year. The report states that, "Since 1978, college textbook costs have increased 812%. To put that in context, it AB 1914 Page 7 means that textbook prices have increased at 3.2 times the rate of inflation." Citing data from the College Board, the report finds that, the average undergraduate student should budget between $1,200 and $1,300 for textbooks and supplies each year; which averages to be as much as 40% of tuition at a two-year community college, and 13% at a four-year public institution. A 2014 Student PIRG study found that 65% of students skipped buying or renting a textbook because it was too expensive, and 94% of those students felt that in so doing, their grade would suffer in a course. Additionally, almost half of the students said the cost of textbooks impacted how many courses they were able to take. Open Educational Resources (OER). 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, 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: they allow students and faculty to access textbooks and related materials for free online or purchase hardcopies that are more affordable than traditional textbooks; they enable faculty to customize learning materials to suit their course objectives; and, they can provide students with a more flexible set of tools that can contribute to a richer learning experience. Access codes. An access code is a password needed in order to access course content online. The content a student accesses depends on the course, but can include things such as practice exam questions, interactive videos, and course assignments. AB 1914 Page 8 Access codes are not always included with a subscription to an electronic book. Additionally, access codes are generally tied to specific textbooks; a student has to purchase the access code that accompanies his or her specific textbook. Not only are access codes an additional cost to students, access codes are used for tasks that could be completed by platforms already available to both professors and students on campus. For example, access codes have been used for the submission of assignments (without grading), storing and maintaining grades, and for communication between faculty members and students. Purpose of this measure. According to the author, "An access code is an identification number or a password that is used to access digital content. Each student must purchase their access code, they cannot be shared. Access codes cost students $50 to $100 in addition to what they pay for all of the other instructional materials required for a course." The author contends that, the digital content protected by an access code can truly enhance a student's learning through informal assessments and immediate feedback. Many professors do not have teaching assistants and the access codes can provide a method to grade digital homework immediately without hours of additional work for the professor. Recognizing the academic freedom of faculty, and the need for some oversight on how instructional materials are selected for students, this measure tasks the CSU Trustees and CCC BOG, and asks the UC Regents, to create specific policies as to what is acceptable for faculty to require of students when purchasing instructional materials, including, but not limited to, textbooks and access codes. AB 1914 Page 9 Analysis Prepared by: Jeanice Warden / HIGHER ED. / (916) 319-3960 FN: 0003352