Free, shareable college textbooks? Yes, please!

Free, shareable college textbooks? Yes, please!

Co-sponsored by Franken with bill buddy Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, the Affordable College Textbook Act works like this: Higher ed institutions apply for government cash to fund the creation of a shareable book. That otherwise marked-up educational content could be built on or customized by other schools and tweed jacketed academics to suit their courses.

According to a U.S. PIRG survey, 65 percent of college students have passed on buying a textbook because it was too expensive. On some campuses, books make up more than 40 percent of the cost to attend, says Ethan Senack, a higher education advocate with the consumer group. “It’s clear that for students and families that are already struggling to afford a college education, it’s not just an expensive textbook anymore,” he says. “It’s a serious barrier.”

Durbin’s Affordable College Textbook Act would create a competitive grant program to support the creation and use of open college textbooks – textbooks that are available under an open license, allowing professors, students, researchers and others to freely access the materials. “We did it on a competitive basis and schools that want to step forward and prove their point that they can do this online we’ll submit their applications for grants,” Durbin said. “As I said, we did this at the University of Illinois. Now there are certain rules of the game. If you’re going to have an open text book, it really has to be open, available to everyone, for the public, and what were finding is there’s a lot of good response to it and I think its catching on.”

Senators Al Franken (D-MN) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) have introduced a plan that could reduce or eliminate some of the outrageously high college textbooks costs: The number of students who don't be some of the required textbooks due to their high cost is astonishingly high:The University of Illinois had a smaller test program that went well: The average college student spends $1,200 per year. From 2002 to 2013, the costs of college textbooks rose a shocking 82%, three times the rate of inflation.

With that in mind—shareable, affordable, open-sourced textbooks? Yes, please!

