FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Dan Xie, Political Director, [email protected], 858-353-1452
Mark Morgenstein, Sr. Media Relations Director, [email protected], 303-573-5556
WASHINGTON — Students struggling with the rising costs of course materials will get millions of dollars of relief, after Congress extended a program that’s helped mitigate those costs for nearly a decade. The Senate Appropriations Committee has included $7 million for the Open Textbooks Pilot Program in its new budget for the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, according to a Tuesday news release from committee member Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.
The announcement came as the Student PIRGs released a new report called Fixing the Broken Textbook Market. The nationwide study focused on the significant logistical and financial barriers created by publishing industry practices, including the fact that 75% of students have had to pay to do their homework or take quizzes, threatening student success. Free, “open” online textbooks have become a proven, increasingly common solution that are reshaping the higher education marketplace and improving access to learning.
“More and more of my professors are assigning open textbooks,” said Kali Kleven, Student PIRGs leader and a junior at the University of Oregon. “They’re well-written, easy to use, and they make a huge difference when you don’t have to choose between paying for books and paying rent.”
Since its launch, the Open Textbooks Pilot Program has helped colleges and universities develop and adopt free, openly licensed textbooks, saving students millions of dollars while giving faculty the flexibility to adapt materials to their courses. While continued investment in open textbooks represents meaningful progress, students continue to face significant barriers created by publishing industry practices, including access codes that require students to pay just to complete homework or quizzes, and automatic billing programs that charge students for materials upfront — often without their knowledge or meaningful consent.
“Open textbooks are proving that we can lower costs and improve transparency and learning at the same time,” said the Student PIRGs’ Political Director Dan Xie. “We’re glad to see bipartisan agreement that college textbooks should be more affordable and accessible.”
| The Student PIRGs are a network of independent statewide student organizations that work on issues like environmental protection, consumer protection, and hunger and homelessness. For nearly 50 years students working with their campus PIRG chapters have been making a real difference in people’s lives and winning concrete changes to build a better world. |