Bill Text: CA AB798 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: College Textbook Affordability Act of 2015.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2015-10-08 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 633, Statutes of 2015. [AB798 Detail]

Download: California-2015-AB798-Amended.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 798	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  AUGUST 17, 2015
	AMENDED IN SENATE  JULY 1, 2015
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JUNE 2, 2015
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 6, 2015

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Bonilla

                        FEBRUARY 26, 2015

   An act to amend Section 69999.6 of, and to add and repeal Part
40.1 (commencing with Section 67420) of Division 5 of Title 3 of, the
Education Code, relating to postsecondary education.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 798, as amended, Bonilla. College Textbook Affordability Act of
2015.
    (1) Existing law establishes the segments of the postsecondary
education system in the state, including the California State
University, administered by the Trustees of the California State
University, and the California Community Colleges, administered by
the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges.
   This bill would establish the College Textbook Affordability Act
of 2015 to reduce costs for college students by encouraging faculty
to accelerate the adoption of lower cost, high-quality open
educational resources, as defined.
   The bill would create the Open Educational Resources Adoption
Incentive Fund in the State Treasury to provide incentives and reward
campus, staff, and faculty efforts to accelerate the adoption of
open educational resources. The bill would require that moneys in the
fund be used by campuses to create and support faculty and staff
professional development, open educational resource curation
activities, curriculum modification, or technology support for
faculty, staff, and students, as specified. The bill would authorize
the local academic senate of a campus of the California State
University or the California Community Colleges to (1) adopt a local
campus resolution, in collaboration with students and the
administration, stating its intent to increase student access to
high-quality open educational resources, and (2) upon adoption of the
resolution, develop a specified plan that describes evidence of the
campus's commitment and readiness to spend grant money from the fund
to support faculty adoption of open educational resources. The bill
would require the California Open Education Resources Council to
review and approve the plan, and, if it meets these and other
specified requirements, would authorize the respective segment office
for the campus to award an initial grant of up to $10,000 to the
campus from the fund.  The bill would authorize a campus to
submit a number plans for approval that would be determined in
accordance with the number of students enrolled on the campus, except
as provided.  The bill would require additional bonus grants of
up to $10,000 to be distributed to participating campuses if certain
benchmarks are met. The bill would cap the number of plans that may
be approved by the California Open Education Resources Council each
award  year at 100.   year, as specified. 
The bill would require a grant recipient to report to the California
Open Education Resources Council  within 90 days after the end
date for each year of each awarded grant  as to whether its
benchmarks have been reached to determine whether it is eligible for
the bonus grants. The bill would require the Intersegmental Committee
of Academic Senates to report to the Legislature before July 1 of
each year, commencing in 2018, as to whether the grants are
increasing the rate of adoption of open educational resources and
decreasing textbook costs for college students.
   The bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2020,
and would repeal them as of January 1, 2021.
   (2) Existing law appropriates, from specified funds, $5,000,000 to
the Chancellor of the California State University to fund, among
other things, the establishment and administration of the California
Open Education Resources Council and the California Digital Open
Source Library. Existing law reverts any of this $5,000,000 that is
not 100% matched by private funds to a specified trust.
   This bill would specify that those funds may be used for purposes
of the College Textbook Affordability Act of 2015, and would specify
that funds appropriated for those purposes shall not be required to
be matched by private funds.  The bill would specify that the
annual costs for the California Open Online Library for Education and
administrative support for the California Open Education Resources
Council shall not exceed $140,000 annually. 
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Part 40.1 (commencing with Section 67420) is added to
Division 5 of Title 3 of the Education Code, to read:

      PART 40.1.  College Textbook Affordability Act of 2015


   67420.  This part shall be known, and may be cited, as the College
Textbook Affordability Act of 2015.
   67421.  The College Textbook Affordability Act of 2015 is hereby
established to reduce costs for college students by encouraging
faculty to accelerate the adoption of lower cost, high-quality, open
educational resources. Faculty development shall be a key component
of this acceleration initiative. This initiative shall use, in
addition to any other appropriate resources, those identified,
housed, produced, and otherwise found appropriate pursuant to the
California Open Education Resources Council established in Section
66409 and the California Digital Open Source Library established in
Section 66408.
   67422.  (a) The Open Educational Resources Adoption Incentive Fund
is hereby created in the State Treasury to provide incentives and
reward campus and faculty efforts to accelerate adoption of open
educational resources for the purpose of reducing students' costs and
improving access to quality materials.
   (b) (1) Moneys in the fund shall be used, upon appropriation by
the Legislature, by community college and California State University
campuses to create and support any, or some combination, of the
following purposes:
   (A) Faculty professional  development.  
development about open educational resources. 
   (B) Professional development for staff whose work relates to the
use of, or student access to, open educational resources.
   (C) Open educational resource curation activities.
   (D) Curriculum  modification.   modification
for the adoption of open educational resources as course materials.

   (E) Technology support for faculty, students, and staff whose work
relates to the use of, or student access to, open educational
resources.
   (2) Moneys in the fund shall not be used for direct compensation
for faculty members who adopt open educational resources or for
purchasing new equipment.
   (c) For the purposes of this act, a "community college campus" is
a community college campus site that has a local academic senate.
   67423.  (a) As used in this part, "fund" shall mean the Open
Educational Resources Adoption Incentive Fund.
   (b) As used in this part, "open educational resources" are
high-quality teaching, learning, and research resources that reside
in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual
property  license   license, such as a Creative
Commons license,  that permits their free use and repurposing by
others, and may include other resources that are legally available
and free of cost to students. "Open educational resources" include,
but are not limited to, full courses, course materials, modules,
textbooks, faculty-created content, streaming videos, tests,
software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to
support access to knowledge.
   67424.  (a) The local academic senate of a campus of the
California State University or the California Community Colleges may
adopt a local campus resolution, in collaboration with students and
the administration, stating its intent to increase student access to
high-quality open educational resources.
   (b) Upon adoption of the local campus resolution, the campus may
develop a plan that describes evidence of the campus's commitment and
readiness to effectively spend grant money from the fund to support
faculty adoption of open educational resources. The California Open
Education Resources Council may provide a model plan to campuses.
   (1) The creation of the plan shall be a collaboration between the
campus academic senate and the recognized campus student body
organization, if the recognized campus student body organization
wants to be involved, with input solicited by the campus academic
senate or the recognized campus student body organization from the
local campus  bookstore.  bookstore, including
regarding open educational resources d   istribution, or
campus centers and libraries supporting faculty professional
development for the adoption of open educational resources.  The
California Open Education Resources Council, established in Section
66409, may provide expertise on available open educational resources
and best practices for the adoption of open educational resources for
existing courses to assist in the development of the plan.
   (2) The plan shall include continued access to open educational
resource materials selected by faculty for use through either the
availability of a  hard copy   hardcopy  at
the local campus bookstore or access to materials  on PDF to
print  on campus, and shall ensure access to materials 
in formats that can be printed  offline for students.
   (3) (A) Each plan shall include three benchmarks, focusing on
reducing costs for students and increasing the adoption of
high-quality open educational resources consisting of a year one
goal, a year two goal, and a year three goal.
   (B) Each local campus shall determine its own benchmarks.
   (4) Each plan that demonstrates the following readiness
requirements shall be given priority for approval in accordance with
paragraph (2) of subdivision (c):
   (A) A plan with concrete benchmarks that demonstrate quantifiable
outcomes to be achieved from its implementation, including, but not
limited to, an estimate of the range of money to be saved per student
from the plan's implementation.
    (B) A plan that utilizes available open educational resources,
including, but not limited to, California Open Online Library for
Education (COOL4Ed) and Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning
and Online Teaching (MERLOT). 
   (C) A plan that provides an estimate of the amount of money to be
saved per student from the plan's implementation.  
   (D) 
    (C)  A plan that provides an estimate of the number of
academic departments expected to be involved in the plan's
implementation. 
   (E) 
    (D)  A plan that describes how existing faculty
development programs will be enhanced by the plan's implementation.

   (F) 
    (E)  A plan that provides an assessment of the costs for
students to purchase course materials, as  may   be
 determined by  consulting with  the California Open
Education Resources Council.
   (c) (1)  (A)    Each local campus may submit the
resolution and the plan developed pursuant to subdivisions (a) and
(b) to the California Open Education Resources Council for an initial
grant from the fund. 
   (B) Except as provided in subparagraph (C), each year, each campus
may submit one plan for an initial grant, and may submit one
additional plan for every additional 10,000 students, regardless of
full-time or part-time status.  
   (C) A local campus that is currently receiving a grant or bonus
grant pursuant to this part may submit no more than the maximum
number of plans for an initial grant under subparagraph (B) minus the
number of the campus' plans that are currently receiving a grant or
bonus grant. 
   (2) The California Open Education Resources Council shall review
the submitted plan and, if it meets the requirements of this part,
approve it.
   (3) Plans shall be submitted and approved in one of two rounds.
Plans submitted from October 2 to April 1, inclusive, of each
academic year shall be reviewed as round one plans. Plans submitted
from April 2 to October 1, inclusive, of a calendar year shall be
reviewed as round two plans.
   (4) The California Open Education Resources Council shall approve
up to 100 plans per year. A plan not approved in a round may be
resubmitted by the campus for approval in future rounds, as
determined by the California Open Education Resources Council.
 Each campus may only have one plan approved for purposes of
the grant program.   For a plan that is not approved,
the council shall recommend modifications to increase the likelihood
of the plan's success if it is approved in a subsequent round. 
   (5) Each plan approved by the California Open Education Resources
Council shall be submitted by the council to the appropriate segment
office. The segment office shall award grants to recipients in
accordance with this  section.   section and in
accordance with each system's policies and procedures for approving
and administering grants. 
   (6) Administrative support may be provided to the council by
COOL4Ed to help the council carry out its duties in accordance with
this part.
   (7) An initial grant shall not exceed ten thousand dollars
($10,000).
   (d) (1) Each year after a campus receives an initial grant, for up
to three years, the campus shall receive a bonus grant from the fund
for meeting established performance benchmarks for accelerating
usage of open educational resources in courses, according to the
following schedule:
   (A) A campus shall receive a bonus grant of up to ten thousand
dollars ($10,000) for reaching its first benchmark in using open
educational resources on campus and decreasing textbook costs for
students in the first year of implementation.
   (B) A campus shall receive a bonus grant of up to ten thousand
dollars ($10,000) for reaching its second benchmark in using open
educational resources on campus and decreasing textbook costs for
students in the second year of implementation.
   (C) A campus shall receive a bonus grant of up to ten thousand
dollars ($10,000) for reaching its third benchmark in using open
educational resources on campus and decreasing textbook costs for
students in the third year of implementation. For bonus grants issued
for reaching the third benchmark, if applications exceed the amount
of available grant funds, priority shall be given by the California
Open Education Resources Council to plans submitted pursuant to
subdivision (c) that achieve cost savings for students through
collaborations with one or more campuses. These collaborations may
form within a segment, or across different segments. 
   (2) A plan that has not met a benchmark shall not be awarded any
bonus grant and shall be deemed terminated, and that plan shall not
count toward the maximum number of plans a campus may submit each
year pursuant to subdivision (c).  
   (2) 
    (3)  If money is available in the Open Educational
Resources Adoption Incentive Fund after the first bonus grants for
reaching the third benchmark pursuant to subparagraph (C) of
paragraph (1) are awarded, additional bonus grants shall be made
available to recipients, as determined by the segment offices, in
consultation with the California Open Education Resources Council,
until there is no money left in the fund. 
   (3) 
    (4)  The bonus grants shall be used for any, or some
combination, of the following purposes:
    (A) Faculty professional development.
   (B) Professional development of staff whose work relates to the
use of, or student access to, open educational resources.
   (C) Open educational resource curation activities.
   (D) Curriculum  modification.   modification
for the adoption of open educational resources as course materials.

   (E) Technology support for faculty, students, and staff whose work
relates to the use of, or student access to, open educational
resources.
   (e) A grant recipient shall report to the California Open
Education Resources Council as to whether its benchmarks have been
reached to determine whether it is eligible for bonus grants pursuant
to paragraph (1) of subdivision (d). This report shall include an
explanation of how the recipient used available open educational
resources, including, but not limited to, COOL4Ed and MERLOT, to
accomplish its goals pursuant to this part more efficiently. 
Campus reports on their projects are due to the California Open
Educational Resources Council within 90 days after the end date for
each year of each awarded grant. 
   (f) The Intersegmental Committee of Academic Senates shall report
to the Legislature before July 1 each year, commencing in 2018, as to
whether the grants are increasing the rate of adoption of open
educational resources and decreasing textbook costs for college
students.
   (g) A local academic senate of a campus of the California State
University or the California Community Colleges may commence its
application by adopting a local campus resolution as of January 1,
2016, pursuant to subdivision (a). The California Open Education
Resources Council shall be ready to review grant applications on or
before March 1, 2016.
   67425.  This part shall become inoperative on July 1, 2020, and,
as of January 1, 2021, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2021, deletes or
extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.
  SEC. 2.  Section 69999.6 of the Education Code is amended to read:
   69999.6.  (a) In enacting this article, it is the intent of the
Legislature to accomplish all of the following:
   (1) Provide explicit authority to the board to continue to
administer accounts for, and make awards to, persons who qualified
for awards under the provisions of the Governor's Scholarship
Programs as those provisions existed on January 1, 2003, prior to the
repeal of former Article 20 (commencing with Section 69995).
   (2) Provide for the management and disbursement of funds
previously set aside for the scholarship programs authorized by
former Article 20 (commencing with Section 69995).
   (3) Provide a guarantee should additional funds be needed to cover
awards authorized and made pursuant to former Article 20 (commencing
with Section 69995).
   (b) The board may manage and disburse the funds previously set
aside for the scholarship programs authorized by former Article 20
(commencing with Section 69995).
   (c) If a person has earned an award under the Governor's
Scholarship Programs on or before January 1, 2003, but has not
claimed the award on or before June 30, 2004, he or she still may
claim the award by a date that is five years from the first June 30
that fell after he or she took the qualifying test. An award shall
not be made by the board after that date.
   (d) The board shall negotiate with the current manager of the
Governor's Scholarship Programs and execute an amended or new
management and funding agreement, before January 1, 2013, which shall
include, but not be limited to, all of the following:
   (1) Terms providing for the return to the General Fund by no later
than January 1, 2013, of moneys appropriated to the Governor's
Scholarship Programs that are not anticipated to be needed to make
awards pursuant to paragraphs (1) and (2) of subdivision (a).
   (2) Provisions that authorize the board to pay agreed-upon early
withdrawal penalties or fees.
   (3) Terms that extend to the final date upon which the board may
withdraw funds for a person who earned an award under the Governor's
Scholarship Programs.
   (e) (1) If funds retained in the Golden State Scholarshare Trust
after January 1, 2013, are insufficient to cover the remaining
withdrawal requests, it is the intent of the Legislature to
appropriate the necessary funds to the Golden State Scholarshare
Trust for the purpose of funding individual beneficiary accounts.
   (2) The board shall notify the Department of Finance and the
Legislature no later than 10 working days after determining that a
shortfall in available funding described in paragraph (1) will occur.

   (f) (1) Of the funds transferred to the General Fund pursuant to
paragraph (1) of subdivision (d), five million dollars ($5,000,000)
is hereby appropriated to the Chancellor of the California State
University, without regard to fiscal years, to fund the establishment
and administration of the California Open Education Resources
Council and the California Digital Open Source Library, and the
development or acquisition of open education resources, or any
combination thereof, pursuant to legislation enacted in the 2011-12
Regular Session of the Legislature, or for the funding of grants and
administrative costs pursuant to the College Textbook Affordability
Act of 2015 (Part 40.1 (commencing with Section 67420) of Division
5). The chancellor may provide reimbursement to the California
Community Colleges and the University of California for costs those
segments, or their representatives, incur in association with the
activities described in this paragraph.
   (2) (A) Moneys, or a portion of moneys, appropriated pursuant to
paragraph (1) shall not be encumbered unless at least 100 percent of
that amount encumbered is matched by private funds. Moneys
appropriated pursuant to paragraph (1) that are not matched by
private funds shall revert to the Golden State Scholarshare Trust for
purposes of the Governor's Scholarship Programs.
   (B) Notwithstanding subparagraph (A), moneys appropriated for
purposes of the College Textbook Affordability Act of 2015 shall not
be required to be matched by private funds.  The California Open
Online Library for Education (COOL4Ed) shall be funded, with no
private match required, to continue developing and updating its
services to provide faculty, staff, and students convenient access to
free and open course materials and for the administrative support
for the   California Open Educational Resources Council. The
annual costs for COOL4Ed services and administrative support shall
not exceed one hundred forty thousand dollars ($140,000) annually.
The amount of funding shall be approved by California State
University and California Community College segment administrators in
the respective chancellor's office. 
   (C) Twenty-five percent of each grant awarded to a campus 
pursuant to the College Textbook Affordability Act of 2015 
shall be matched by the campus and used by the campus to ensure
administrative and faculty support of the campus' plan that was
submitted and approved in accordance with Section 67424.
   (D) Money provided to a member of the California Open Education
Resources Council for purposes of the council carrying out its duties
in accordance with this part shall not exceed  three
  eight  thousand dollars  ($3,000)
  ($8,000)  total  per year  and shall be
provided as a stipend. No additional money shall be provided for
travel purposes.
   (g) The board may adopt rules and regulations for the
implementation of this article.