Each year CSU tracks measures that affect the system and its campuses. Often times these bills fall within in several large issues categories that help the CSU determine the legislative priorities by the state for each particular issue. This session brings with it a group of legislative proposals that address textbooks.

The CSU is currently tracking five bills that the authors believe address textbook affordability and within these measures several are aimed at increasing accountability, transparency, and accessibility. With the first legislative deadline quickly coming up, a number of these measures will be taken up by the legislature in the next few weeks.

Below is a list of the five bills we are currently tracking, where they are in the legislative process and what their impact will be on CSU.

AB 386 (Ruskin) Postsecondary Education: Instructional Materials: Disabled Students
This bill, is intended to strengthen California's existing law, which requires that education materials must be accessible to students with disabilities. Specifically the bill defines audiovisual works, digital media files, including “podcasts” and “Web clips”, as materials that must be accessible to students with disabilities.

Status: This measure, which is sponsored by the California Community Colleges, is a work in progress, and will be heard in the Assembly Higher Education Committee on April 21, 2009.

SB 48 (Alquist) College Textbooks: Electronic Version
This measure would require publishers of textbooks offered for sale at a public postsecondary institution of education make the textbooks available in an electronic format by January 1, 2020. It would also require that the electronic version of textbooks include the same content as the printed versions, allow the electronic versions to be copy-protected, and would prohibit the charging of a higher amount for an electronic version than is charged for the printed version.

Status: This measure will be heard on May 6 in the Senate Education Committee.

SB 216 (Liu) Public Postsecondary Education: Textbooks
This measure would require the California State University, the University of California and the California Community Colleges to post a list of required textbooks and the cost of each book on their Internet Web, at least 30 days prior to the first day of class for each term. For bundled materials, the bill would require the course instructor to confirm his or her intent to use each individual item sold as part of the bundled package before adoption of the material is finalized.

Status: This measure will be heard on April 22 in the Senate Education Committee

SB 386 (Runner) Postsecondary Education: Textbooks
The measure would require CSU, the UC and the CCC faculty members who adopt a new textbook edition within three years after initial adoption to provide a cost-benefit analysis. The analysis will need to be submitted to the academic senate, administration and student government. The cost-benefit analysis must include three parts: (A) Justification for changing textbook edition within the three-year period. (B) Comparison of the differences between the old and new editions. (C) Disclosure of any financial interest of the faculty member related to requiring the new textbook edition.

Status: This measure is set for hearing April 29 in Senate Education.

SB 388 (Calderon) Educational Material
This measure creates the “Accountability in College Textbook Publishing Act” and would require any college textbook publisher to disclose in writing to any faculty member or entity charged with selecting textbooks the amount that the textbook would be made available to the campus bookstore. The bill would require the publisher to make the textbook available at that price for 6 months and would require the publisher to inform the institution 45 days in advance of any price increase. The bill would require the publisher to inform the institution of previous editions and the substantial content revisions made from the previous edition. The bill would also require a publisher to provide bundled textbooks and supplemental material separately, but this act would not be applied to an "integrated textbook", which is defined by this bill as being a textbook that is combined with a supplemental material that are so interrelated with the textbook that its separation would render the book unusable.

Status: This measure was amended on April 1, 2009 and has yet to be referred to a policy committee.