‘Open Textbooks’ a Coming Reality for College Students?
This could certainly help mitigate skyrocketing college expenses.
From the Christian Science Monitor:
How ‘open textbooks’ could ease college sticker shock
A bill introduced in the Senate last week could soften the blow of college textbooks prices.
An average US college student spends about $1,225 per year on books and supplies, according to the College Board, but the Affordable College Textbook Act could change that.
If passed, the act would provide grants to colleges and universities to digitize their textbooks, creating “open textbooks” that are free, searchable, and accessible 24/7 to students, professors, researchers, and anyone else.
“When it comes to paying for college, one thing that’s often overlooked is the rising cost of textbooks and supplies,” said bill co-sponsor Al Franken (D) of Minnesota. “By expanding access to free online textbooks, our bill would help address this problem and allow students and families to keep more of their hard-earned money.”
How 'open textbooks' could ease college sticker shock (Christian Science Monitor)
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Except that textbooks that you have to buy in the College textbook store are a massive cash cow for colleges. Like they’re gonna give that up? Ha.
Instead, they fight the textbook-resellers and try to get them banned, and they ‘update’ the textbooks a little as often as they can, changing around the page numbers, so as to keep kids buying the latest version instead of buying last year’s model from a used textbook vendor.