Free Textbooks In California? Senator Seeks To Create Electronic Library

By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The leader of California's Senate wants to offer an electronic library of free basic textbooks for college students in a bid to offset higher university fees.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said Tuesday he will offer legislation next year to create 50 textbooks for the most common college classes.

He plans to seek the $25 million startup cost, even as California cuts spending in education and other areas in response to a lingering multibillion dollar deficit.

A typical student could save $1,000 of the $1,300 he or she now spends on textbooks each year, Steinberg said, citing estimates from California's three higher education systems. The savings would largely offset recent fee increases by state universities, he said.

Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said his two proposed bills would create a faculty council from the University of California, California State University and community college systems to choose the 50 college courses and seek bids from authors or companies to produce textbooks for those classes.

The texts would be available free online or students could get a printed copy for about $20.

Steinberg wants textbooks for the first 25 courses available by the fall of 2013 and the remainder by autumn 2014.

Professors could cut and paste from the online textbooks to create their own customized materials at a fraction of the cost of requiring students to buy each book separately, he said.

J. Bruce Hildebrand, executive director of the higher education division at the Association of American Publishers, objected to government stepping in rather than letting the free market continue in the direction it's going.

"Digital is the future and we're there," Hildebrand said.

Publishers already offer many books more cheaply online, where material can be purchased by the chapter, he said, adding that publishers also have their own clearinghouse of discounted materials.

Steinberg said publishers aren't moving fast enough and need a push from government.

His proposal has the backing of the 20 Million Minds Foundation, which aims to shrink the cost of a college education by making electronic textbooks more available. The foundation's name comes from the number of college students nationwide.

Dean Florez, a former state senator who now is president of 20 Million Minds, said California's approach could drive similar moves nationwide.

Senate Republicans couldn't immediately comment on Steinberg's plan because they haven't seen the details, said spokeswoman Jann Taber.

Former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried a similar effort in 2009, aimed at cutting costs for high school students.

While Steinberg wants to create new electronic textbooks, Schwarzenegger asked state education officials to review material already on the Internet to see if it meets California's curriculum standards.

Comments

[lcr999]

08:58 PM on 12/15/2011

ok, 25M$ to get 50 text books. Half a million each !!!

Now with 50 textbooks, you might hit one for each 1st or 2nd year student per year. 50 courses is only a very small fraction of the college curriculum and not every professor will want to switch. And sorry it is unlikely to cover any of the upper level courses. Anyway, the savings are no where near 1000$ per student per year.

[Tammy Tyler Palmisano]

05:17 AM on 12/15/2011

kudos to cali...i have wondered why we are not doing the same thing in the public schools! it is way cheaper to update a computer than reprint books...in fact i think all educational books should be available online to anyone who wants to learn, in school or not! free of charge to...if we dont educate or people are unable to afford education our entire country suffers...knowledge is power

[dbrett480]

01:46 AM on 12/15/2011

Fantastic idea. Every now and then a gem like this will come out of the California legislature.

[imissmydog]

12:28 AM on 12/15/2011

How about professors/departments not request the latest edition every single semester. They're working together! My uni actually has their own edition of a calculus textbook! So when students want to sell this book back, only students from one school in the entire US will want that piece of _!

[peegan]

02:08 AM on 12/15/2011

Another scam is professors writing their own text books and "updating" them every couple of semesters so the books are of no resale value. i had a couple of psych professors pulling this stunt.

[imissmydog]

03:11 AM on 12/15/2011

Oh yeah. I had a prof who included worksheets that needed to be torn out of the book.

[Just a passerby]

07:50 AM on 12/15/2011

Just so you know - in many cases, professors DON'T request the latest edition. In fact, it's forced on them by the publishers, who will declare a new edition and refuse to buy back the old one.

[dfleming]

12:11 AM on 12/15/2011

The textbook industry is one of the biggest parasites on the public trough that gets little to no attention. The Bush White House was as loaded with textbook execs as it was with oil execs and what did that bring us? NCLB and the mania around standards testing.

What industry, coincidentally, said they had the perfect product to deal with standards? What industry made grotesque profits from our public ed system and on the backs of children and their parents? That's right, the textbook industry.

This idea is great as long as it takes on the profit and headlock that the textbook industry has on education.

[dior12]

11:06 PM on 12/14/2011

This is an awesome idea. However, most introductory college textbooks for science anyway are not really needed.. yet students buy them mindlessly like drones. They don't realize they can get the information online.. summarized.. for free.

[empress trudy]

07:13 PM on 12/14/2011

Many NC State progs have all their materials online and free. If you want a complicated problem solved easily give it to an engineer on a budget.

[murfiani39]

06:49 PM on 12/14/2011

great idea after my first semester i did not buy books, could not afford them

[driverstest]

04:31 PM on 12/14/2011

Nothing is free. Some where along the line someone is paying for it!

[mikey09]

03:57 PM on 12/14/2011

One the surface sounds good to me. One thing abt textbooks not often mentioned is the "new' editions. A Professor might require edition 10 and the next year edition 11,YeT, when you look at these books, the difference might be a paragraph or two, it takes away from the value of reselling your used textbooks....its a scam and i often wondered if the professors were getting kickbacks.

[peegan]

02:10 AM on 12/15/2011

Someone is. Just like the cozy arrangement that existed between schools and TI for years.

[Just a passerby]

07:53 AM on 12/15/2011

Believe me, the professors are not in on any kickback. It bugs them just as much as it does you, because they then have to rewrite notes and reorganize their material.

Blame the publishers for this one.

[econ1]

01:44 PM on 12/14/2011

Negotiating a better deal on the books makes sense, and free stuff usually gets votes, but if CA has an extra $25 million (is that the cost or just the start up costs) aren't there other higher priority spending issues. Also a bit of a concern with the state "creating" the books...sounds creepily like 1984.

[OneFish]

01:12 PM on 12/14/2011

His motives are fine but I think a better business model might be to simply cut out the middle-man. Let the authors publish their books electronically and sell directly to students for a nominal fee. That would provide at least some small incentive for producing quality, peer-reviewed texts.

[Just a passerby]

07:52 AM on 12/15/2011

Sure - but you know who'll howl, right? The academic publishers. Besides, they do add some value. In general, authors don't write the questions/problems at the back of each chapter, nor do they provide illustrations, etc.

So the publishers can make a case for some of the price. Not much, but some.

[OneFish]

06:01 PM on 12/15/2011

Of course, but the world changes and sometimes it can be a good thing.