BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1053
Page 1
Date of Hearing: July 3, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Marty Block, Chair
SB 1053 (Steinberg) - As Amended: May 25, 2012
SENATE VOTE : 33-3
SUBJECT : Public postsecondary education: California Digital
Open Source Library.
SUMMARY : Establishes the California Digital Open Source
Library (CDOSL) for the purpose of housing open source
materials. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the California State University (CSU) to administer
the CDOSL, in coordination with the California Community
Colleges (CCC) and the University of California (UC), if the
UC Regents approve the activity, 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.
2)Requires that the materials in the library bear 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 of the
material to receive credit for their efforts.
3)States that these provisions become operative only if funds
are appropriated in the Budget Act, or if federal or private
funds are made available, or any combination thereof.
4)States that this bill becomes operative only if SB 1052
(Steinberg) of the 2011-2012 Regular Session becomes operative
on or before January 1, 2013, establishing the California Open
Education Resources Council.
5)Expresses legislative findings and declarations relating to
the cost of college and university textbooks and states
legislative intent that UC, CSU, and CCC provide incentives to
assist and support faculty in choosing lower cost alternatives
such as open source textbooks and related teaching tools.
6)Becomes operative only if funds are appropriated in the Budget
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Act or if federal or private funds are made available, or any
combination thereof.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires, beginning January 1, 2020, any person, firm or
corporation that publishes textbooks offered for sale at UC,
CSU, CCC or a private college or university to make the
textbooks available for sale in an electronic format.
2)Requires CSU and CCC, and encourages UC, to work with the
academic senates of each segment to encourage faculty to give
consideration to the least costly practices in assigning
textbooks and to work with publishers and college bookstores.
3)Requires college bookstores to work with the academic senates
of each campus to review the process and timelines involved in
ordering and stocking textbooks and to create bundles and
packages of instructional materials that are economically
sound.
4)Urges textbook publishers to provide specific information to
faculty and post that information on the company's Web site,
give preference to supplements rather than producing a new
edition and disclose the length of time the current edition is
intended to be in production.
5)Requires CSU, and requests UC, to review and revise student
transfer policies to ensure that faculty may choose a textbook
selected for a transfer or general education course,
regardless of publication date, for as long as the textbook is
available, current and reflects contemporary thinking.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, start-up costs likely in the low millions of dollars,
and on-going costs of $400,000 to CSU. Exact costs will be
determined by the choices made by the California Open Education
Resources Council �established by SB 1052 (Steinberg) and given
the authority to oversee the CDOSL] to which this bill is
joined. A potentially substantial on-going reimbursable mandate
to CCC, which is required to participate and eligible to seek
reimbursement for state-mandated activities.
COMMENTS : Background . Several reports throughout the last
decade have noted the increasing cost of college textbooks. For
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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 this 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 would create a
repository for digital open education resources developed as a
result of SB 1052 (Steinberg), to be heard in this Committee on
July 3, for textbooks for the 50 most widely taken lower
division courses in public postsecondary education.
What are 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, 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
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a lack of funding.
Contingent enactment . This bill is a companion to SB 1052
(Steinberg) that establishes the California Open Education
Resources Council to do the following:
1)Develop a list of the 50 most widely taken lower division
courses in the public postsecondary education segments,
2)Create and administer a standardized, rigorous review and
approval process for open source materials developed pursuant
to this legislation,
3)Promote strategies for the production, access, and use of open
source materials, and,
4)Require publishers of textbooks used in the 50 most widely
taken lower division courses to, as a condition of 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.
Related and prior legislation . SB 1328 (de Leon), set for
hearing in this Committee on July 3, would require publishers to
provide specified data to enable colleges and universities to
provide faculty textbook adoption and student purchasing search
engines. SB 1539 (Corbett), approved by this Committee on June
19, would require publishers to provide additional data on
textbooks. Previous textbook legislation includes:
1)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.
2)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.
3)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
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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
Academic Senate of the California State University
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges
California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office
California Public Interest Research Group
California State Student Association
California State University
Campaign for College Opportunity
Coast Community Colleges
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