BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1052
Page 1
Date of Hearing: July 3, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Marty Block, Chair
SB 1052 (Steinberg) - As Amended: May 29, 2012
SENATE VOTE : 32-3
SUBJECT : Public postsecondary education: California Open
Education Resources Council.
SUMMARY : Establishes the nine-member California Open Education
Resources Council (COERC) that will be responsible for a variety
of tasks geared toward reducing textbook costs for the 50 most
widely taken lower division courses. Specifically, this bill :
1)Establishes the COERC, to be administered by the
Intersegmental Committee of the Academic Senates of the
University of California (UC), California State University
(CSU), and California Community Colleges (CCC) or a successor
agency, with the following membership:
a) Three UC faculty selected by the UC Academic Senate,
b) Three CSU faculty selected by the CSU Academic Senate,
and,
c) Three CCC faculty selected by the CCC Academic Senate.
2)Requires the COERC to do all of the following:
a) Develop a list of the 50 most widely taken lower
division courses in the public postsecondary education
segments,
b) Create and administer a standardized, rigorous review
and approval process for open source materials developed
pursuant to this legislation,
c) Promote strategies for the production, access, and use
of open source materials, and,
d) Require publishers of textbooks used in the 50 most
widely taken lower division courses to, as a condition of
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the purchase of textbooks, to provide the campus with at
least three copies of the textbook at no cost, for
placement on reserve at the campus library.
3)Requires the COERC to establish a competitive bid process in
which faculty members, publishers, and other interested
parties may apply for funds to produce 50 high-quality
affordable, digital open source textbooks and related
materials in 2013.
4)Requires textbooks and other materials produced to be:
a) Placed under a creative commons attribution license that
allows others to use, distribute, and create derivative
works based upon the digital material while still allowing
the authors or creators to receive credit for their
efforts.
b) Modular in order to allow easy customization and be
encoded in an Extensible Markup Language format or other
successor format so that the materials can be made
available on a wide range of platforms.
c) Submitted to and housed within the California Open
Source Digital Library when and if that library is
established pursuant to statute.
5)Expresses legislative findings and declarations relating to
the cost of college and university textbooks.
6)Becomes operative only if funds are appropriated in the Budget
Act or if federal or private funds are made available, or any
combination thereof.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires, by January 1, 2020, publishers of textbooks used at
UC, CSU, 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. (Education Code � 66410)
2)Establishes the College Textbook Transparency Act �AB 1548
(Solorio), Chapter 574, Statutes of 2008], which requires
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faculty members and academic departments at an institution of
higher education to consider cost in the adoption of
textbooks, and requires textbook publishers to disclose
specified information. (EC � 66406.7)
3)Requires the CSU Board of Trustees and the CCC Board of
Governors, and requests the UC Board of Regents, to work with
their 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. Existing law also urges textbook publishers to
provide information to faculty when they are considering which
textbooks to order, and to post information on the publishers'
Web sites, as specified. 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 � 66406)
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill was keyed non-fiscal after recent
amendments, since its implementation is depending on a budget
appropriation or private funds. However, according to the
according to the Senate Appropriations Committee's analysis,
this bill will result in substantial one-time costs for COERC
activities and significant on-going costs to maintain and update
digital files, as follows:
1)COERC: The scope of the COERC costs will depend on the degree
to which the workload can be absorbed by existing staff to the
ICAS. At a minimum, there will be significant costs to staff
the COERC to complete the required activities, to create and
execute the competitive bid process, to create contracts with
the entities that ultimately produce the content, and to
establish procedures for segment use of the final products.
2)Digital textbooks: The state will pay for the
creation/procurement of 50 high-quality, open source, digital
textbooks. The specific costs will be driven by the market
for the 50 courses for which textbooks will be sought. These
digital files will be stored and administered on an ongoing
basis, as is detailed in a companion bill SB 1053 (Steinberg).
3)Revenue loss: Upon implementation, there will likely be a
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significant loss of state sales tax revenues to the extent
that students were previously purchasing textbooks for the 50
courses from sales tax-generating businesses in California.
Additionally, there will likely be a substantial revenue loss
to campus bookstores, which are often self-supporting and, in
some cases, support other campus activities.
COMMENTS : Background . Several reports throughout the last
decade have noted the increasing cost of college textbooks. For
example, the California State Auditor released a report entitled
"Affordability of College Textbooks" (2008) that identified
publishers, campus bookstores, and faculty members as
responsible parties needing to work together to reduce costs and
properly disclose textbook information to students.
In response, California and the federal government enacted laws
to provide greater information to faculty and students about
textbook prices and options, differences in new editions, and to
provide supplements instead of new editions; to encourage the
timely adoption of textbooks by faculty; and to ensure faculty
choose lower cost textbook options. A report on the
implementation of the federal laws is due in July 2013.
Need for the bill . According to the author, the cost of
textbooks represents a significant burden to students and
families. The author sites a recent report by the CSU
Chancellor's office that estimates CSU students pay
approximately $1,000 per year for textbooks. The author also
notes a finding by the CCC Academic Senate that the cost of
educational materials has become a "visible barrier to college
attendance for many students." The author maintains that the
old model of rigid, printed textbooks and related materials can
fall short in providing flexible and dynamic teaching tools
necessary to maximize student success. This bill attempts to
address those costs for the 50 most common lower division
courses by requiring the availability of textbooks for those
courses to be available on reserve at the campus library and by
enabling instructional materials for those courses to be
available through Open Education Resources.
Open Education Resources . Open Education Resources (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,
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reuse, remix, or redistribute the materials.
Beginning with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in
1999, several higher education institutions have initiated OER
efforts. In California, the Foothill-De Anza Community College
District received a one-time grant from the William and Flora
Hewlett Foundation in 2003, and created freely available course
materials for eight college courses using a mixture of open
education resource and conventional commercial learning
materials; however, this project has not been maintained due to
a lack of funding.
Issues to consider .
1)Scope . This bill tasks the COERC with identifying the 50 most
widely taken lower division course in the public postsecondary
segments and producing 50 high-quality, affordable, digital
open source textbooks and related materials in 2013. Course
offering among campuses vary widely, especially among CCCs.
Should the focus be on the most widely used textbooks, rather
than courses, and should the price of the textbook, as well as
its popularity, be a deciding factor? Are career technical
education courses included, since textbooks in these areas
tend to be more expensive? Is 50 the right number, or should
the number be determined by the COERC? Finally, recognizing
that the cost of textbooks has increased for students at
private institutions, should the COERC also include faculty
representing the independent colleges and universities?
2)Textbook reserve requirements . This bill would prohibit
public postsecondary education institutions from purchasing
textbooks for one of the 50 most widely taken lower division
courses unless the publisher places at least three free copies
of the textbook on reserve at the campus library. Some type
of verification process would be needed to ensure that the
publisher had provided the free copies before a campus
bookstore could complete the faculty order. What impact would
this have on the timely ability of bookstores to stock
textbooks? What if the publisher refuses to provide the
copies? Is three the right number? A very small off-campus
center may only have 30 students enrolled in one freshman
English course, while a very large campus might offer multiple
sections, taught by faculty who might each select different
textbooks.
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3)Timeframe/report . This bill does not include a timeframe for
COERC to accomplish the required deliverables or a report on
the COERC's progress and results. The Committee suggests a
progress report to the Legislature and Administration by July
1, 2014, and a final report by January 1, 2016.
4)Sustainability . For OER to be useful it must be current.
How will the OER developed under this bill be kept current,
and how will this effort be funded?
Related and prior legislation . This bill is a companion to SB
1053 (Steinberg), also scheduled to be heard in this Committee
on July 3. SB 1053 would establish the California Digital Open
Source Library, to be jointly administered by UC, CSU, and CCC
for the purpose of housing open source materials. SB 1053
becomes operative only if SB 1052 is enacted.
SB 48 (Alquist), Chapter 161, Statutes of 2009, required any
individual firm, partnership, or corporation that offers
textbooks for sale at UC, CSU, the CCC, or a private
postsecondary education institution in California, to the extent
practicable, make them available for sale in electronic format
by January 1, 2020.
AB 1548 (Solorio), Chapter 574, Statutes of 2007, established
the College Textbook Transparency Act requiring the disclosure
of specified information and requiring faculty to follow
specified practices in the sale and purchase of textbooks.
AB 577 (Ruskin) of 2007, which was held under submission on the
Senate Appropriations Suspense File, would have establishes a
three-year pilot program at Foothill-DeAnza Community College
District to train faculty and staff from CCC districts statewide
with the information and methods to establish OER centers.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office
California Public Interest Research Group
California State Student Association
California State University
California Teachers Association
Campaign for College Opportunity
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Coast Community College
Community College League of California
Student Senate for California Community Colleges
University of California Student Association
Opposition
Association of American Publishers, Inc.
Analysis Prepared by : Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960