SB 1052

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) The Donahoe Higher Education Act authorizes the activities of the 4 segments of the postsecondary education system in the state. These segments include the 3 public postsecondary segments: the University of California, which is administered by the Regents of the University of California, the California State University, which is administered by the Trustees of the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, which is administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Private and independent postsecondary educational institutions constitute the other segment. Provisions of the Donahoe Higher Education Act apply to the University of California only to the extent that the regents act, by resolution, to make them applicable. Existing law urges textbook publishers to take specified actions aimed at reducing the amounts that students pay for textbooks, including providing to faculty and departments considering textbook orders a list of all the different products the publisher sells. Existing law requires the Trustees of the California State University and the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and requests the Regents of the University of California, to take specific actions with their respective academic senates, college and university bookstores, and faculty to promote the selection of textbooks that will result in cost savings to students. This bill would express legislative findings and declarations relating to the cost of college and university textbooks. The bill would add provisions to the Donahoe Higher Education Act to establish the California Open Education Resources Council under the administration of the Intersegmental Committee of the Academic Senates of the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, or a successor group. The bill would specify that the council would have 9 members, including 3 faculty members from each of the public postsecondary segments, selected by the respective faculty senates of each segment. The bill would require the appointments to the council to be made no later than 90 days after the bill becomes operative. The bill would require the California Open Education Resources Council to determine a list of 50 lower division courses in the public postsecondary segments for which high-quality, affordable, digital open source textbooks and related materials would be developed or acquired, as specified, pursuant to the bill. The bill would also require the council to review and approve developed open source materials and to promote strategies for production, access, and use of open source textbooks to be placed on reserve at campus libraries in accordance with this section. The bill would require that the council regularly solicit and consider, from each of the statewide student associations of the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, advice and guidance on open source education textbooks and related materials, as specified. The bill would require the council to establish a competitive request-for-proposal process in which faculty members, publishers, and other interested parties would apply for funds to produce, in 2013, 50 high-quality, affordable, digital open source textbooks and related materials, meeting specified requirements. The bill also would require the council to submit a report to the Legislature and the Governor on the progress of the implementation of these provisions by no later than 6 months after the bill becomes operative and to submit a final report by January 1, 2016. (2) Existing law requires publishers, as defined, to provide a captioned format of instructional materials, as defined, or an electronic format of those materials and a license to create a captioned format of the materials, upon request by a public postsecondary educational institution, and authorizes the public postsecondary educational institution to create a captioned format, subject to prescribed conditions, if the publisher provides a license to create the captioned format or fails to respond to a request for a captioned format. Existing law prescribes various requirements with respect to use and distribution of electronic and captioned formats of instructional materials by public postsecondary educational institutions that choose to participate in the request process. This bill would include digital open source textbooks and related materials within the definition of instructional materials for the purposes of this provision. The bill would prescribe a procedure for this request process relating to digital open source textbooks if and when the California Open Source Digital Library is established pursuant to statute. (3) These provisions would become operative only if funding for the purposes of this bill is provided in the annual Budget Act or another statute, or through federal or private funds, or through a combination of state, federal, and private funds.