Despite
heavy opposition from the major textbook publishers, the College
Textbook Affordability Act, SB 832 (Corbett), sponsored by CALPIRG,
passed out of the Assembly Higher Education Committee on a 6-1 vote and
now heads to the Assembly Floor.
“There’s
no question that we need to lower the high costs of college textbooks,”
said Emily Rusch, CALPIRG Advocate. “We should 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. “With the
rising costs associated with going to college, students and parents
could really use a break, and the committee members should be applauded
for recognizing that and taking a concrete step to ease the burden of
high textbook costs.” Said Christine Pham, CALPIRG Textbooks
coordinator at UC Davis
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.
CALPIRG is a statewide non-profit, non-partisan organization that stands up to powerful interests.
