BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 1359
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|Author: |Block |
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|Version: |March 28, 2016 Hearing |
| |Date: April 6, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Lynn Lorber |
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Subject: Public postsecondary education: education materials:
textbooks
SUMMARY
This bill requires each campus of the California Community
Colleges and the California State University, and requests each
campus of the University of California, to clearly identify in
each published schedule of classes the estimated total costs of
required textbooks and other required educational materials for
each course offered by the campus.
BACKGROUND
Existing federal law, the Higher Education Opportunity Act:
1) Requires each institution of higher education (IHE) that
receives federal financial assistance, to the maximum
extent possible, to:
a) Disclose, on the IHE's online course schedule,
the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and
retail price information of required and recommended
textbooks and supplemental materials for each course
listed in the course schedule.
b) Include on the IHE's written course schedule a
notice that textbook information is available on the
IHE's online course schedule, and the web link to that
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schedule.
1) Provides exceptions to the disclosure requirement as
follows:
a) If the ISBN is not available, the IHE is
required to include the author, title, publisher, and
copyright date.
b) If the IHE determines that the disclosure of
the price is not practicable for a textbook or
supplemental material, the IHE is required to so
indicate by placing the designation "To Be Determined"
in lieu of the price.
1) Encourages IHE's to also provide to students information
regarding:
a) Available institutional programs for renting
textbooks or for purchasing used textbooks.
b) Available institutional guaranteed textbook
buy-back programs.
c) Available institutional alternative content
delivery programs.
d) Other available institutional cost-saving
strategies.
1) Requires each institution of higher education (IHE) that
receives federal financial assistance to make available to
college bookstores that are operated or affiliated with the
institution the most accurate information available
regarding the IHE's course schedule for the subsequent
academic period and the information described in #1-2 above
for each course or class offered for the subsequent
academic period.
2) Provides that the information is to be provided to the
college bookstore as soon as is practicable upon the
request of the college bookstore.
(United States Code, Title 20, § 1015)
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Existing state law:
1) The College Textbook Transparency Act, requires each
campus bookstore at any public postsecondary educational
institution to post in its store or on its website a
disclosure of the retail price policy on new and used
textbooks.
(Education Code § 66406.7)
2) The College Textbook Affordability Act, establishes the
Open Educational Resources Adoption Incentive Program to
incentivize faculty to accelerate the adoption of lower
cost, high-quality, open educational resources (OERs) at
campuses of the California Community Colleges (CCC) and the
California State University (CSU). This program provides
funding for faculty professional development, professional
development for staff, OER curation activities, curriculum
modification and requisite release time for faculty, and
technology support. (EC § 67420)
3) Establishes the California Digital Open Source Library,
administered by the California State University (CSU) in
coordination with the CCC, for the purpose of housing open
source materials while providing web-based access for
students, faculty and staff to find, adopt, utilize, or
modify course materials for little or no cost. (EC §
66408)
4) Establishes the California Open Education Resources
Council and requires the council to be responsible for,
among other things, developing 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 are to be developed
or acquired. (EC § 66409)
5) Requires the CSU Trustees and the CCC Board of
Governors, and requests the Regents of the University of
California, 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
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considering what textbooks to order, and to post
information on the publishers' websites, 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)
ANALYSIS
This bill requires each campus of the California Community
Colleges (CCC) and the California State University (CSU) to
identify in the course schedule the estimated total costs of
required textbooks and other materials for each course offered
by the campus. Specifically, this bill:
1) Requires each campus of the CCC and the CSU to clearly
identify in each published schedule of classes the
estimated total costs of required textbooks and other
required educational materials for each course offered by
the campus.
2) Requests each campus of the University of California to
clearly identify in each published schedule of classes the
estimated total costs of required textbooks and other
required educational materials for each course offered by
the campus.
3) Defines "schedule of classes" as a collection of available
classes, course sections, or both, published in print or
electronically, before the start of an academic term.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill. According to the author, "Textbook cost
transparency is critical for students to make clear,
informed decisions about their course enrollments. Trends
indicate that there has been a steady increase in the cost
of textbooks in the past six years, and the annual cost of
textbooks at the California State University is estimated
to be nearly $1,000 in 2014. The Legislature has approved
various measures aimed at increasing the use and production
of quality Open-Educational Resources (OERs), or free
textbooks and educational materials that are in the public
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domain. OERs can offset and mitigate the high cost of
textbooks, but their adoption has been slow. Clear
disclosure of estimated textbook costs could encourage the
more widespread adoption of OERs, which could help drive
down textbook costs."
2) Existing federal law. Existing federal law requires each
institution of higher education (IHE) that receives federal
financial assistance, to the maximum extent possible, to
disclose, on the IHE's online course schedule, the
International Standard Book Number and retail price
information of required and recommended textbooks and
supplemental materials for each course listed in the course
schedule. It appears that IHEs are meeting this
requirement in different ways; many IHEs include a separate
link to textbook pricing information, but do not include
the price next the each course description in the course
schedule.
Staff recommends an amendment to include a cross-reference to
existing price disclosure requirements, and require the
CCCs and CSUs to ensure price disclosures are clearly
listed in the course schedule with the description of each
course.
3) Practical effect. This bill varies from existing federal
law in the following ways:
a) Federal law requires disclosure of the retail
price of each textbook but does not require a total
cost to be provided. Will disclosure of the total
cost illuminate courses that utilize open source
materials?
b) Federal law requires disclosure of the price of
textbooks and supplemental materials, while this bill
requires disclosure of the total cost of textbooks and
other required educational materials. It is unclear
if there is a distinction, or if this bill requires
the disclosure of the price of materials not already
covered by federal law. Federal law requires
disclosure of the price of required and recommended
materials, while this bill requires disclosure of
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other required educational materials. Staff
recommends an amendment to specify that the total
costs are to be disclosed for required and recommended
textbooks and other educational materials.
c) Federal law requires disclosure in online course
schedules, and requires disclosure in printed
schedules of the link to the online schedule. This
bill expands disclosure by requiring it in all
published course schedules, thereby requiring the
price disclosure to also be included in any printed
schedule.
d) Federal law requires disclosure for each course
listed in the course schedule. This bill expands
disclosure by requiring price information for each
course offered by campus. It is unclear how many, or
what type, of courses may be offered by not listed in
the course schedule.
4) Open Educational Resources. 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- or low-cost access
and permission to revise, reuse, remix, or redistribute the
materials. OERs enable faculty to customize learning
materials to suit their course objectives, as well as
provides students access to no- or low-cost educational
materials.
5) Existing efforts to increase access to OERs. 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 December
2015, the California Open Education Resources Council had
identified more than 160 appropriate OER textbooks for the
50 courses. The California Open Online Library for
Education, known as COOL4Ed, houses open textbooks, open
course materials, open courses, open access journals and
articles, textbook reviews, among other resources.
[http://www.cool4ed.org/index.html]
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The multimedia Educational Resources for Learning and Online
Teaching (MERLOT), led by the California State University,
offers free access to more than 60,000 peer-reviewed online
teaching and learning materials across a wide range of
disciplines.
6) Related Budget activity. The Governor's 2016-17 Budget
proposes $5 million in one-time funds to create
"Zero-Textbook-Cost Degrees" at the California Community
Colleges. These degrees would allow students to complete a
degree entirely by taking courses that use only free
instructional materials. Under the Governor's proposal,
community colleges would compete for grants up to $500,000
each to offer a zero-textbook-cost associate degree,
certificate, or credential program.
7) Timing is everything. Existing federal law requires IHE's
to make available to college bookstores the most accurate
information available as soon as is practicable. It is
crucial for the bookstore to have the list of required
textbooks and other materials, as well as the price of each
material, prior to publication of the schedule of courses.
Staff recommends an amendment to specify that the most
accurate information is to be disclosed in the course
schedule to allow for the most-recently known total price
to be disclosed in situations where the total price of new
editions, for example, is unknown at the time the course
schedule is published.
8) Technical amendments. The author intends the total cost to
assume purchase of a new textbook or other materials, and
if purchased from the campus bookstore. Staff recommends
amendments to make these clarifications.
9) Related legislation. AB 2214 (Harper) requires faculty of
the California State University (CSU) and the California
Community Colleges (CCC) to annually disclose all income
received for royalties, advances, consulting services, or
for any other purpose. AB 2214 scheduled to be heard by
the Assembly Higher Education Committee on April 12.
AB 1914 (Bonilla) requires the California State University and
the California Community Colleges, and requests the
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University of California (UC), to adopt policies for their
respective segments regarding when it is acceptable for a
faculty member to require students to purchase academic
materials, including, but not necessarily limited to,
textbooks and access codes. AB 1914 is pending in the
Assembly Higher Education Committee.
10) Prior legislation. AB 456 (Patterson, 2015) requires the
California State University, and requests the University of
California, to offer discounted electronic textbook rentals
to their students for each textbook assigned in a course,
if the content of the electronic and printed versions of
the textbook are the same. AB 456 was never heard.
AB 2471 (Lara, 2011) required e-textbooks used in courses at the
state's postsecondary institutions to include specified
consumer protections, and requires the institutions to
adopt rules consistent with these requirements. AB 2471
was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 1328 (De León, 2011) required a publisher to provide textbook
data in specified formats; encouraged public and private
postsecondary institutions to develop faculty textbook
adoption search engines with specified functions; and
required campus bookstores at private and public
postsecondary institutions to provide a student textbook
comparison engine on their Web sites. SB 1328 was referred
to but not heard in the Assembly Higher Education
Committee.
SB 216 (Liu, 2009) required the CSU and the CCC to post a list
of required textbooks for each course on the internet at
least 30 days prior to the first day of class, including
the price charged for each textbook, and required each
instructor or academic department to confirm the intent to
use each individual item sold as
part of a bundled package of instructional materials before
the final adoption of the material. SB 216 was held in the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
SB 386 (Runner, 2009) required a faculty member at the
California Community Colleges or the California State
University who adopts a new edition of a textbook within
three years after the adoption of a previous edition of
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that textbook to prepare a justification for the adoption
of the new edition. SB 386 was held in the Senate
Appropriations Committee.
SUPPORT
None received.
OPPOSITION
None received.
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