Despite heavy opposition from the major
textbook publishers, the College Textbook Affordability Act, SB 832 (Corbett),
sponsored by CALPIRG, passed out of the Assembly. The bill now needs a simple
concurrence vote in the Senate before it heads to the Governor’s desk.
“This law will be welcome news to
the many students heading back to school right now who are being hit with
another hefty bill for textbooks” said Tessa Atkinson-Adams, CALPIRG Textbooks
Coordinator and UCSB student. “There is no questions that we need to lower the
high costs of college textbooks. We can start by helping professors avoid
assigning textbooks to their students with rip-off prices.”
Textbook costs are skyrocketing for students.
Students already struggling to afford the rising costs of college are
increasingly burdened by expensive books, which cost the average student $900 a
year. That's equal to roughly 20% of tuition and fees
at a four year college, and 43% of the tuition and fees at a two year school.
SB 832 was developed in response to the
findings of a PIRG survey of 287 professors. Our survey results, published in
our report Exposing
the Textbooks Industry, uncovered that textbook publishers are not
disclosing price information clearly to faculty, resulting in many faculty
assigning textbooks for their classes without knowing what the books will cost
their students.
- 23 of faculty said that textbook publishers’
websites are easy to use.
- 77 percent of faculty said that textbook
marketing representatives rarely or never volunteer the price of their
books.
- Even when professors asked directly for the price
in a sales meeting, only 38 percent of the professors said they always got
an answer.
- As
a result, only 63 percent of faculty surveyed told us that they usually
know the price of the books they assign.
SB 832 requires publishers to disclose the
price of their products in the marketing materials and on their website so that
faculty can make informed decisions about the books they assign to students. Despite
the simple requirements of the bill, and the broad support from faculty,
bookstores, student groups and others, the publishing companies have been
heavily opposed to the legislation. The governor now has a chance to stand up
for students and faculty against the special interest publishers by signing the
College Textbook Affordability Act into law.
Other supporters of the legislation include
the Chancellor, Faculty Association, and League of California Community
Colleges, the CSU Academic Senate, the UC Student Association, the Silicon
Valley Leadership Group, the California Teachers Association, and numerous
other student groups, faculty members, and individual colleges. Similar
legislation recently passed in Connecticut, Washington, and Oregon.
