College Textbooks Could Be Free Under Legislation Introduced In Congress

"Legislation introduced in Congress could make buying expensive textbooks a thing of the past. The bill sponsored by by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Al Franken (D-Minn.) would create a grant program for colleges and universities to 'create and expand the use of textbooks that can be made available online' and offered with free access to the public. Students -- and anyone else for that matter -- would have access to digital textbooks and not be bound to buying the latest edition stocked in a campus bookstore. The bill, named the 'Affordable College Textbook Act,' was filed by Durbin and Franken earlier this month. A complimentary bill was drafted in the House by Reps. Rubén Hinojosa (D-Texas) and George Miller (D-Calif.). Durbin cited the success of a $150,000 grant to the University of Illinois for its Open Source Textbook Initiative. Thanks to the grant, UI faculty were able to develop a book that's available to anyone for free and can be updated when new information becomes available. Similar results were achieved at the University of California-Davis as a result of a $250,000 grant from the National Science Foundation ..."