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Who cares
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Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to higher education
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act requiring the boards of trustees of the state university of New York and the city university of New York to conduct a joint study and report on the availability and accessibility of alternative high-quality, lower cost course resources in lieu of traditional textbooks
Purpose or general idea of bill
The purpose of this bill is to study the availability and accessibility of alternative high-quality, lower cost course resources in lieu of traditional textbooks at SUNY and CUNY campuses.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 would require the board of trustees of the state university of New York to conduct a study and report on the availability and accessibility of alternative high-quality, lower cost course resources in lieu of traditional textbooks. The study must include an overview of current initiatives undertaken by SUNY to facilitate access to textbook alternatives, as well as other information related to traditional textbook costs, challenges associated with making more alternative textbook materials available, and information on other states' best practices and initiatives to reduce textbook costs.
Section 2 would require the board of trustees of the city university of New York to conduct a study on resources in lieu of traditional textbooks in an identical manner as required by SUNY in section 1 of the bill.
Section 3 would require SUNY and CUNY to report on its findings to the Governor and the Legislature within one year of the effective date.
Section 4 would provide that the effective date be immediate.
Justification
The cost of textbooks is a significant challenge to college affordability. Textbook costs have soared in the last decade, and high costs are forcing students to opt out of courses due to textbook costs or take courses without the textbook. "Open Educational Resources" (OERs) are developed like textbooks but have "open" use licenses and therefore can be offered at no cost to students in lieu of textbooks, generally electronically. Other states have taken legislative action to facilitate access to these materials to lower textbook costs: a 2015 California law established a statewide council to identify and catalogue available OERs and promote making these materials available, and Connecticut is enabling pilot programs to pursue that goal, and a $1.2 million investment to support an open course library in Washington state was found to save students at least $5.5 million in textbook costs. This bill would allow SUNY, CUNY, and the legislature to study the current cost of traditional textbooks, as well as initiatives currently being undertaken to reduce textbook costs for students while increasing the accessibility to open educational resources.
Prior legislative history
New bill.
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.