Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed Senate Bill 832, which would have immediately reduced textbook prices for students.
Instead,
the governor chose to sign Assembly Bill 1548, The College Textbook
Transparency Act. The signed bill was sponsored by the Association of
American Publishers.
The College Textbook Transparency Act will go
into effect in 2010, and provides faculty members with lists of changes
between one edition of a text and the next. The signed act differs from
SB 832, The Textbook Affordability Act, as it does not provide the
prices of books unless a request is submitted. SB 832 would have made
price listings mandatory.
"This bill focuses strictly on textbook
publisher policies and fails to recognize that the affordability of
textbooks is a shared responsibility among publishers, college
bookstores and faculty members," Schwarzenegger said in a letter to the
California State Senate.
In a statement released by the California
Student Public Interest Research Group on Oct. 15, the organization
voiced its disappointment in Gov. Schwarzenegger for failing to take
action on high book prices.
"SB 832 sought to correct the imbalance
in the market by requiring publishers to disclose the price of a book
to professors up front…[By not signing SB 832] the Governor failed to
heed the research and recommendations of the academic community."
Zeke
Reyes, president of the Valley College chapter of CALPIRG, one of the
sponsors of the bill, described the reaction of the organization's
members when the Textbook Affordability Act was vetoed.
"I was in
the [CALPIRG] office downtown when we got the call that it was vetoed,"
said Reyes. "The whole office just groaned…the bill that was signed
isn't going to help anyone right now."
According to a press
release by CALPIRG, the organization hopes that "Over time, the
Governor rethinks his position and reconsiders similar efforts in the
future.
Biomedical physics major Quoya Flack, 23 said that she doesn't own one of her $200 textbooks because she couldn't afford it.
"I
feel like Schwarzenegger is being insensitive to students," said Flack.
"The new bill doesn't start until 2010, what does that do for me now?"
Glen Paget, a Valley math professor also voiced his disappointment. "The
governor's actions are detrimental to both faculty and students," he
said. "I hope that if the bill goes to him again, so he has another
chance to sign it."
Sen. Ellen Corbett, who wrote the Textbook Affordability Act, was not available to comment.
