Open up our education : The Massachusetts Daily Collegian

"Think about it. How much has the study of calculus changed since it was discovered four centuries ago? At a beginner’s level, probably not very much. In that case, there isn’t a good reason why professors have to mandate the latest edition of Pearson or McGraw-Hill’s calculus textbooks, when an open-source alternative could get the job done just as well, if not better. I’ve been on both sides of this argument. As a student, I’ve often been frustrated by the ridiculous price-to-quality ratio of textbooks and online homework systems. As a teaching assistant for an introductory genetics class, I’ve also come to realize that it’s simply not necessary to mandate proprietary textbooks if there are open-access alternatives."