New Mexico Daily Lobo :: Bill could make college textbooks free, accessible online

"Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Al Franken, D-Minn. and Angus King, I-Maine, recently introduced a new bill to Congress intended to make college textbooks free and accessible online to students, professors, researchers and others.  According to congress.com, through the Affordable College Textbook Act, a competitive grant program would be created and awarded to universities that creates and adopts free online textbooks to achieve savings for college students. It also ensures that any open textbooks or educational materials created using program funds will be easily accessible to the public, and requires entities who receive funds to complete a report on the effectiveness of the program in cutting costs for students, according to congress.com. According to UNM data, an instate UNM students pays on average $1,064 annually on books and supplies, accounting for 5 percent of all student expenditures over the year. The bill encourages colleges to have their faculty create online textbooks and make them available online for anyone to use freely, as well as expand the use of open educational resources ..."