Legislation aimed at curbing textbook costs in Florida would restrict how often professors could change the course materials they assign, stirring concern among faculty members that they would be forced to teach outdated information.
The bill, in the Florida Senate, would require that undergraduate course textbooks remain in use for at least three years at state institutions, unless a professor successfully appealed to administrators to change course materials more frequently. The bill would also require professors to post assigned textbooks at least two weeks before registration for a new term, forcing them to choose course materials up to seven months before the first day of class.
Supporters of the bill, SB 530, say it would lower financial barriers to higher education for students who struggle to afford rising textbook costs, which they attribute in part to frequent turnover in course materials. But professors worry that the bill would force them to teach dated research and entangle them in onerous regulations.
Tom Auxter, statewide president of United Faculty of Florida, which represents faculty members at the state’s public colleges, said he sympathized with the goal of lowering textbook costs, “but you don’t want to do it in a draconian way that damages the quality of instruction.”
A Senate subcommittee unanimously approved the bill last week, sending it to the full Appropriations Committee. Mr. Auxter said he expected the Senate to pass the bill in the coming weeks; he also anticipates strong support in the House of Representatives.
“The rising cost of textbooks and instructional materials continues to be a barrier for students,” a legislative assistant to the bill’s author, State Sen. Anitere Flores, a Republican from Miami, said in an email.
In January the U.S. Public Interest Research Group reported that 65 percent of students who responded to a survey had decided not to buy required course materials because they were too expensive.
According to a June 2013 report by the Government Accountability Office, new-textbook prices rose by 82 percent from 2002 to 2012, at three times the rate of inflation.
Faculty Opposition
But professors say students will suffer if they are prevented from learning about the latest research innovations. Adding bureaucratic hurdles to the process of designing a syllabus, opponents of the bill say, could also create new costs for students.
“Our idea is that we actually take our cutting-edge research into the classroom,” said Mr. Auxter, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Florida. “We don’t want to have obsolete research be in effect for three years at a cutting-edge university. That’s not how universities operate.”
He said members of the faculty union had been calling state senators to express their concern. Some of the more-rigid provisions of the original bill have been rolled back; language was stricken from an earlier version that would have forced all professors who teach the same course to use the same textbook.
Mr. Auxter said Senator Flores had been working with opponents of the bill to find a compromise. He said he was optimistic, for example, that the bill would be changed to require professors to post textbook selections 60 days before class begins, rather than two weeks before registration.
Mr. Auxter said it was possible that other changes in the law would be made next year after a task force on textbook costs makes its recommendations. The task force would be set up under the current bill to study ways of reducing textbook costs, including through bulk purchases of e-textbooks and expanded use of open-access textbooks.