Governor Gavin Newsom Just Saved California College Students Thousands of Dollars Each
California College Students: Vote “No” on the Recall To Make Public College More Affordable and Be Sure to Ask Your Parents to Vote “No” on the recall, too!
Earlier this month, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation he personally sponsored that will save California college students thousands of dollars each while they earn their degrees and certificates. Students will get the cash because their textbooks will soon be free. Newsom’s bold decision vaults California solidly into first place, in terms of resources allocated, among about a dozen other states that are also rolling out what are known as Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) degree programs.
Newsom’s cost-saving ZTC degree program supports the increased use of Open Educational Resources (OER). OER are learning resources, such as textbooks, lesson plans, online learning resources, and lectures, that are released with an intellectual property license that allows their free use and repurposing by others. Educators around the world committed to student success are increasingly turning to OER as a way to provide students with immediate free access to necessary learning materials and also to collaborate more quickly, easily, and afforably to improve educational access and outcomes.
In addition to providing free online textbooks, which can also be printed out as desired for the cost of paper and ink, Newsom’s new ZTC program, which is initially aimed at community colleges, also enables California college students to keep their textbooks and similar online learning materials for life. Rather than feel financial pressure to sell their textbooks back to college bookstores for what is often just chump change, students will soon be able to keep their college textbooks on their digital shelves forever, which can be helpful as they move on to more advanced courses and to their careers. What’s more, many of these free textbooks and free online learning resources are sure to be used simultaneously by instructors in the California state college and university systems, where faculty leaders are already working closely with Newsom’s office to expand the ZTC program.
Governor Newsom’s leadership on behalf of California’s often cash-starved college students has received scant attention in the press. Even so, his support of this new $115 million statewide program is sure to cement Newsom’s legacy as the most important pro-education California governor since Pat Brown (Governor Jerry Brown’s father). Brown, Sr. enacted California’s orginal Master Plan for Higher Education in the early 1960’s. (That plan built out California’s state university and community college systems, which created new opportunities for millions of state residents and led directly to California’s subsequent economic boom). Thanks to Governor Newsom, California’s outdated 1960’s Master Plan is now being smartly updated for the digital age by means of this new grassroots faculty-led Digital Master Plan for Higher Education currently taking shape. Newsom’s plan will modernize our state colleges and universities past their original brick and mortar foundations, save students billions of dollars over time, push California’s pro-education policies into the digital age, and keep Californa at the center of the global open education revolution for decades to come. The quality of these free and open educational materials will also steadily improve, as well, thanks to OER’s transparency features and the committed, involved, and inspiring leadership of the Academic Senate for California’s Community Colleges and other faculty groups, which have taken on a commendable role in guiding and overseeing the effort.
The movement toward offering ZTC programs using OER started several years back at Tidewater Community College, in Norfolk, Virginia. “Because of Tidewater’s ZTC degree program I did not have to choose between continuing my education and buying braces for my daughter,” noted Melissa Hoch, 48, at the time. Hoch is a Tidewater graduate and former dental assistant, who returned to school after a divorce and has since completed her Bachelor’s degree in Logistics at Old Dominion University.
All of the learning materials developed for California’s ZTC degree programs will be licensed under a Creative Commons BY license, which will make the materials freely available around the world to use, adapt, customize, and improve while the original authors receive credit for their work, under a policy adopted by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. The growing use of OER embraced by Newsom makes entirely new types of collaboration in teaching and learning within California and across borders and cultures far more affordable, practical, and productive. That promises to help California’s college students collaborate more easily and affordably with students around the globe as our next generation of leaders step up to stop climate change, reduce poverty, and overcome the pandemic.
But please hear this: all this progress, all of it, will be placed at risk if Governor Newsom is recalled on Sept. 14th. That’s why it is so important that you (yes, YOU!) spread this news and make sure that every college student in California votes “no” on the recall, and also asks their parents and other relatives to please do the same. That is, unless those students and their parents would rather fork out thousands of dollars in unneccesary costs for often overpriced college textbooks and online learning materials.
Please help all our students get their shot at a better future by voting “no” on the recall on September 14. Even better, please mail in your “no” vote today.
