College textbooks can be pricey. Minnesota State is offering more for free.

"System leaders hope free resources will help reduce disparities in higher education, while giving professors more power to tailor course materials....

Brian Welch estimates he's saved about $2,500 on his college costs by choosing classes that offer free materials.

"The cost savings had a big impact on my life," Welch said, adding that it left him with more money to buy groceries and gas or to purchase supplies for other classes that required traditional textbooks.

Welch, a senior at St. Cloud State University, is one of more than 85,000 students in the Minnesota State system of colleges and universities who has taken a class that relies on free materials, also called open educational resources. System leaders estimate those students have saved a combined $8.5 million over the past decade and are hopeful that the classes are starting to slowly chip away at disparities in higher education...."