BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1154
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 8, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 1154 (Walters) - As Amended: July 5, 2012
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:11-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires a publisher, if it offers instructional
materials (IM) in an equivalent digital format, to offer the
digital format at the same or lower cost than the cost of the
purchased printed format. Specifically, this bill:
1)Extends the above price requirement to a publisher of printed
supplemental IM.
2)Authorizes an equivalent digital format IM to be substituted,
if a publisher/manufacturer cannot obtain copyright due to a
third-party contract conflict (e.g., if a publisher cannot
obtain the copyright for Huckleberry Finn). Further
authorizes the State Board of Education (SBE) and local
governing boards to review and approve the IM substitutions,
as specified.
3)Requires IM or supplemental IM to be offered by a
publisher/manufacturer as unbundled elements to enable the
digital material or printed materials to be purchased
separately from other components of a whole IM program.
4)Authorizes a school district to use its purchased digital
format IM to create a district wide online digital database
for classroom use consistent with an online security that is
mutually agreed on by the publisher and the district.
5)Exempts "small publishers/manufacturers" from the requirements
of this bill. Defines "small publishers/manufacturers" as an
independently owned or operated publisher/manufacturer has 100
or fewer employees and average annual gross receipts of $10
million or less over the previous three years (this definition
is consistent with the state's definition of a small
SB 1154
Page 2
business).
6)Requires the provisions of this bill to be implemented in
accordance with the current suspension of the IM adoption
process. Further specifies this measure does not authorize
the use of IM that would constitute an infringement of
copyright under federal law.
7)Requires this measure to only be in effect if AB 1790 (Hagman)
of the 2011-12 Regular Session is also enacted and takes
effect.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)GF administrative costs to the State Department of Education
(SDE) of at least $150,000 to review IM substitutions if a
publisher/manufacturer is unable to obtain a digital
copyright, as specified. It is unclear how many publishers
will submit digital IM for this review.
2)This bill may result in local school district GF/98 savings if
districts choose to take advantage of the "unbundling"
provisions in this bill (i.e., only buying certain components
of IM programs). The SBE is unclear if there will be savings
to districts that choose to predominantly purchase digital IM
instead of materials in the printed format. This bill,
however, does not require a school district to only purchase
digital materials; instead, the purchasing choice - either
printed or digital - remains with the local school district.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . Current law requires the SBE to adopt basic IM in
the core academic content areas (English language arts,
mathematics, history/social science, and science) every six
years for use in grades K-8. The SBE is also required to adopt
statewide academically rigorous content standards in the core
curriculum areas. These content standards are implemented
through the curriculum frameworks, as adopted by SBE. The
adopted IM must be consistent with the criteria and standards
of quality prescribed in the adopted curriculum frameworks.
Also, the governing board of each school district maintaining
one or more high schools is authorized to adopt IM for use in
the high schools (grades 9-12) under its control.
According to the author, "California's current economic
SB 1154
Page 3
situation has resulted in many school districts being unable
to afford new hardcopy textbooks for their students.
Additionally, public schools are not able to seize the
opportunity presented by these new technologies �by purchasing
digital IM], which are the future of education."
According to the Association of California School
Administrators, sponsor of this bill, "�SB 1154] provides for
greater access to digital instructional materials and ensures
educators have the right to purchase only those components of
an instructional program (in either print or digital format)
they truly need. Today students still carry around 4-5 pound
books for every core subject to and from home. �This bill]
would allow a school to purchase print version of a book but
also purchase on-line secure log-ins to be used in a
classroom, library or for home access. SB 1154 provides for
some basic incremental steps towards more local choice and
empowerment to use limited resources more effectively, giving
districts more control over what they purchase and how much
they pay."
2)Existing law (via Title 5 regulations) requires publishers to
provide the State Department of Education (SDE) with a uniform
resource locator (URL) to those IM intended for pupil use
being submitted for adoption. SDE is required to post on its
website direct hyperlinks to the URLs, and the IM content
under these URLs is required to be identical to the hard copy
IM submitted for adoption to the SBE, as specified. This
requirement was established in the context of public
inspection of IM being considered by the SBE for adoption and
not necessarily for the purpose of school districts purchasing
digital IM.
SB 247 (Alquist), Chapter 209, Statutes of 2009, authorized a
local governing board to use funding from the Instructional
Materials Funding Realignment program to purchase
state-adopted IM for grades K-8, inclusive, and state
standards-aligned materials for grades 9 to 12, inclusive, in
an electronic format, if the board can ensure that each pupil
will be provided with a copy of the IM to use at school and at
home.
3)Opposition . The Association of American Publishers (AAP) is
opposed to this measure for several reasons, including that
the definition of "digital" does not mean the same thing and
as such, certain digital materials cost more than printed IM.
Specifically, the AAP states: "One size does not fit all in
SB 1154
Page 4
clothing and that is also true for many, if not all digital
products. The savings of paper and ink are outweighed by the
costs of programmers, digital artists, servers, website costs,
and major expenses for maintenance of sites and access. Print
materials have little or no on-going costs." The organization
is concerned that certain digital files that are interactive
(PDF) cost more to develop and maintain than other "readable"
digital content.
The AAP is also opposed to the requirement that
publishers/manufactures provide all IM (printed or digital)
available unbundled to school districts. "Unbundled" means a
school district does not have to buy all components of the IM
program (e.g., a district may only buy the workbooks portion
of the program or the materials associated with English
development). AAP states: "If a publisher sold an �SBE]
approved program without all components required and approved
for coverage of the �IM] criteria they would be violating the
terms of their approval and denying students' access to the
required standards aligned curriculum."
4)Moratorium on the adoption and purchase of IM . AB 2 X4
(Evans), Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009, specified that local
education agencies (LEAs) are not required to purchase IM
through the 2012-13 FY. Consistent with the non-purchasing
requirement, Chapter 2 also suspended the requirement for SBE
to adopt IM or conduct other procedures associated with
adoption (i.e., adopting curriculum frameworks) until the
2013-14 school year. SB 70 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal
Review), Chapter 7, Statutes of 2011, extended this suspension
until the 2014-15 FY. This bill does not interfere with these
provisions.
5)Related legislation . AB 1790 (Hagman), pending on the Senate
Floor, requires a publisher/manufacturer submitting a printed
IM for adoption by the SBE or the governing board of a school
district to ensure the printed IM is also available in a
digital format during the entire term of the adoption. The
enactment of SB 1154 is contingent upon the enactment of this
bill. AB 1790, however, does not contain similar language
with regard to SB 1154.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
SB 1154
Page 5