BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - Governor Jerry Brown has signed SB 1052 which will allow students to download for free 50 core textbooks for lower-division courses offered by the University Of California, California State University and California Community College Systems.

Hard copies of the texts would cost $20.

"I think that would be a great thing because textbooks are really expensive," said Bakersfield college student Roberto Banda.

"College is already expensive enough," said Bakersfield college student  Viridiana Flores.

Students say they spend several hundreds of dollars for textbooks and can easily spend upto a thousand dollars.

"That money can be very useful because right now we have a lot of bills to pay amd it could go to food or car bills," said Banda.
 
Another bill that the governor passed would create a free database for those digital textbook to be loaded into so that students may access.

The bill's author hopes the first free books will be available by the start of the 2013-2014 school year.