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CALPIRG volunteer Sara Castrale, a second-year undeclared student, tables on Bruin Walk.

Last month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill designed to help decrease the cost of textbooks for students at California’s public colleges and universities.

The bill, Assembly Bill 2477, was authored by Assemblywoman Carol Liu, D-La Cañada Flintridge, and was supported by the California Public Interest Research Group.

While many students who’s wallets have recently been ravaged by soaring textbook costs may see the bill signing as a positive move, others realize that the bill has more bark than bite.

The bill only encourages publishers to reduce book prices by separating extra features from the books and by disclosing the differences between editions.

Similarly, the bill recommends that the University of California and other public schools in the state implement textbook sharing and lending programs for students but does not actually mandate any changes.

Though the bill doesn’t seem to have much teeth, CALPIRG’s Legislative Director Steve Blackledge praises it.

“The Liu bill is a common-sense approach to reducing textbook prices. The approach wasn’t to throw the book at the textbook publishers, but instead to provide direction for how to reduce textbook prices,” Blackledge said in a statement.

Candice Chung, a spokeswoman for Liu, said because the textbook publishers are private companies, direct price controls cannot be implemented.

Chung also said the bill’s biggest accomplishment is that it brings “publishers together with faculty and students to work toward a solution.”

Schwarzenegger had the opportunity to sign another bill to reduce textbook costs, which would have outlined a plan to introduce a self-sustaining textbook rental service for universities, but he vetoed the measure.

Both bills easily passed the houses of the State Legislature, which are controlled by the Democratic party.

Blackledge had criticism for Schwarzenegger’s veto of the textbook rental bill, AB 2678.

“The good news is that Gov. Schwarzenegger signed one college textbook bill. The bad news is that he vetoed the other. Both bills were sponsored by CALPIRG, and both enjoyed broad bipartisan support in the Legislature,” Blackledge said.

“Perhaps Gov. Schwarzenegger and his advisors should go back and review their college math books. The textbook rental bill would have saved money for college students, and that’s the kind of math that every politician should embrace,” said Blackledge.

At the same time, Blackledge praised Schwarzenegger and Liu for supporting one of the bills.

“Assembly Member Liu, the Legislature, and now Gov. Schwarzenegger are to be commended for their support of this best-practices textbook bill, which puts in place a series of recommendations for publishers and others to follow in order to reduce soaring costs,” said Blackledge.

Many students are fed-up with high textbook costs and feel that something should be done to actively reduce the cost of textbooks for students.

“The state and the University of California should provide programs to help students find used or cheaper books,” said Shukry Cattan, a fourth-year history student.