Bill > S1859

Introduced Session

This bill requires textbook publishers to provide to the faculty members or academic departments at public institutions of higher education responsible for selecting textbooks the price at which the publisher would make the product available to the college bookstore. The bill also requires publishers to disclose when unbundled textbooks are available in the same edition as the bundled textbooks. Bundling refers to the practice of packaging required textbooks with additional instructional materials, such as CD-ROMs and workbooks. Under the bill, the governing board of the institution is required to institute policies that encourage faculty members to place purchasing orders in sufficient time to enable the institution or bookstore to confirm the availability of the requested materials and, when appropriate, the availability of used textbooks or alternative digital formats. The bill provides that textbooks must be sold in the same manner as ordered. In the event that the product is unavailable as ordered, the bookstore, faculty member, and relevant publisher are required to work together to provide the best possible substitute that most closely matches the requested product, and the publisher must make available the price of the substitute. The bill also provides that no employee of a public institution of higher education may demand or receive any payment, loan, advance, goods, or deposit of money for adopting specific course materials required for coursework or instruction. The cost of attending public institutions of higher education continues to increase and many New Jersey students and their families find it difficult to afford the textbooks and materials that students are required to purchase for their courses. The purpose of this bill is to promote open and transparent marketing, pricing and purchasing of textbooks to provide savings to students.

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Shirley Turner (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Higher Education Committee (on 03/10/2016)