Affordable Higher Education News

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.