BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1328|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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|327-4478 | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 1328
Author: De León (D)
Amended: 5/25/12
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 8-1, 4/11/12
AYES: Lowenthal, Alquist, Blakeslee, Hancock, Liu, Price,
Simitian, Vargas
NOES: Huff
NO VOTE RECORDED: Runner, Vacancy
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-2, 5/24/12
AYES: Kehoe, Alquist, Lieu, Price, Steinberg
NOES: Walters, Dutton
SUBJECT : Postsecondary education: textbooks
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires a publisher that supplies
textbooks or other instructional material to a
postsecondary institution or faculty to provide specific
information about that textbook or material using a
standard Extensible Markup Language or comma-delimited
format, or both.
ANALYSIS : The federal Higher Education Opportunity Act
(HEOA) requires publishers (when providing information to
faculty or others who select course materials at an
institution of higher education receiving federal financial
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assistance) to include in writing:
1. The price at which the publisher would make the textbook
or supplemental material available to the campus
bookstore and, if available, the price at which the
material is available to the public.
2. The copyright dates of the three previous editions.
3. A description of the substantial content revisions made
between the current edition and the previous edition.
4. Whether the textbook or supplemental material is
available in any other format, including paperback and
unbound.
The federal HEOA requires each institution of higher
education to:
1. Disclose in the institution's Internet course schedule,
for each course listed, the International Standard Book
Number (ISBN) and retail price of required and
recommended college textbooks and supplemental
materials.
2. Make available to a college bookstore the most accurate
information available regarding the course schedule and
for each course offered the ISBN, retail price, number
of students enrolled in the course, and the maximum
student enrollment for the course.
The College Textbook Transparency Act requires, beginning
January 1, 2010:
1. Textbook publishers to print on the cover or within each
textbook a summary of the substantive content
differences between the new and prior editions, and the
copyright date of the previous edition.
2. Each campus bookstore at any public college or
university to post in its store or on its website a
disclosure of its retail pricing policy on new and used
textbooks.
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3. Each public college or university to encourage personnel
responsible for selecting course materials (typically
faculty) to place their orders with sufficient lead time
to enable the bookstore to confirm the availability of
the requested materials.
Existing law requires:
1. The California State Universities (CSU) and California
Community Colleges, and encourages the Universities of
California, 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
This bill requires textbook publishers to provide specific
information about that textbook or material using a
standard Extensible Markup Language (XML) or
comma-delimited format, or both. Specifically, this bill:
1. Requires a publisher that supplies textbooks or other
instructional materials to a postsecondary institution
or a faculty member of a postsecondary institution to
provide the following information about that textbook or
item of instructional material using a standard XML or
comma-delimited format, or both, in the order listed:
Book title, Author, Publisher, ISBN, Retail price,
Edition, Copyright date.
2. Requires this data to be available for public review and
use.
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3. Defines "Comma-delimited" as a type of data format in
which each piece of data is separated by a comma, "ISBN"
as the International Standard Book Number, a numeric
commercial book identifier, "Postsecondary institution"
as both private and public postsecondary institutions,
"XML" as Extensible Markup Language, which is designed
to transport and store data.
Background
XML was designed to transport and store data (with a focus
on what data is), while Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
was designed to display data (focus on how data looks).
Comma-delimited data uses a format in which each piece of
data is separated by a comma. This format is generally
used to transfer data from one application to another (most
database systems are able to import and export
comma-delimited data).
Federal report due in 2013 . The federal HEOA requires the
Comptroller General of the United States to report, by July
1, 2013, on the implementation of the requirements imposed
upon institutions of higher education, college bookstores
and publishers, and particularly examine: (a) the
availability of college textbook information on course
schedules; (b) the provision of pricing information to
faculty by publishers; (c) the use of bundled and unbundled
material; (d) the implementation of the HEOA by
institutions of higher education, including the costs and
benefits to such institutions and to students.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/25/12)
California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office
Community College League of California
Faculty Association of Community Colleges
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The HEOA authorizes new programs
that support faculty in selecting quality and affordable
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course materials for students by requiring textbook
publishers to provide specific information about textbooks
and other instructional materials. According to the
author's office, "Given the limited implementation of these
policies this bill takes a proactive approach at providing
textbook price transparency by ensuring that valuable data,
already being provided under requirement of federal law, to
be submitted, collected, and organized in a useful and
uniform format that will ultimately achieve the intended
goal of greater transparency and consequently greater
affordability or postsecondary content. SB 1328 provides
faulty with a usable online dataset and platform that can
compare prices of all relevant textbooks in one place so
that they can make an educated choice on behalf of
students."
PQ:do 5/25/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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