Sponsors
The bill aims to lower student textbook costs, expand accessible and editable open educational resources, and increase pricing transparency, but those benefits come with transition and administrative costs to institutions, risks of digital inequity and inconsistent material quality, potential impacts on creator revenue, and limited immediate effects on pricing.
Students (especially low-income students) will pay substantially less for course materials because federal support and requirements expand free digital open educational resources and open textbooks across many courses.
Students with disabilities will gain better access to course materials because grant programs and OER requirements push materials toward broader accessibility and Section 508 conformance where feasible.
Faculty and institutions will receive funded professional development and produce royalty-free, editable resources, increasing instructional capacity and giving teachers flexibility to tailor and update materials.
Colleges, universities, and their staff will face substantial transition and ongoing administrative costs and time to create, adapt, verify, and publish OER, diverting resources from other campus priorities.
Students without reliable internet access or devices risk being disadvantaged by a greater reliance on digital OER, worsening inequities for low-income and rural students.
Upfront costs to make OER and course materials accessible (captioning, alt text, remediation) can be substantial for creators and institutions, increasing near-term expenses.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes grants to expand open textbooks, requires colleges to disclose course-material info (price, ISBN, OER status, publisher data-practice links), and orders a GAO report on textbook costs.
Introduced March 5, 2025 by Joseph Neguse · Last progress March 5, 2025
Creates a federal competitive grant program to expand adoption, creation, and adaptation of open textbooks (OER) at colleges and universities, and strengthens college disclosure requirements about required course materials. Requires institutions to publish ISBNs, retail prices, whether a material is an OER, and, for digital materials, a link to publisher data-practice summaries; directs institutions to assist campus bookstores in sourcing lower-cost options; and asks the Government Accountability Office to report within three years on textbook costs and implementation of these changes. The measure also affirms accessibility for students with disabilities and encourages—but does not require—faculty consideration of open textbooks while preserving academic freedom. The bill authorizes grants to individual institutions, consortia, or state consortia to support professional development and creation/adaptation of open textbooks, sets application and quality/impact/sustainability requirements, and prioritizes projects that maximize student savings and produce high-enrollment-course materials; it does not itself appropriate funds or create new penalties.