Sponsors (4)
Official title: To expand the use of open textbooks in order to achieve savings for students and improve textbook price information.
Introduced March 5, 2025 by Joseph Neguse · Last progress March 5, 2025
The bill aims to lower student textbook costs, improve accessibility, and build evidence to support OER adoption, but it requires federal funding and creates substantial transition, reporting, and compliance burdens for institutions and publishers, with uneven benefits depending on local adoption.
Students: pay substantially less for course materials as grant-funded open textbooks and OER adoption (plus required price disclosures) make low- or no-cost alternatives widely available.
Institutions and instructors: receive grant-funded professional development, resources, and flexible/adaptable teaching materials that make it easier to create, update, and customize courses while preserving faculty academic freedom.
Students with disabilities: gain better access because funded projects and required formats must conform to accessibility standards (Section 508) and include quality reviews and update plans.
Colleges, universities, and faculty: face substantial transition and ongoing administrative burdens (time, faculty workload, platform/hosting, accessibility compliance, reporting, and maintenance) to develop, adopt, and sustain OER.
Taxpayers: may incur new federal costs because the program authorizes unspecified appropriations and funds for grants and studies (including GAO work).
Small and commercial publishers: may lose revenue and face added compliance costs (OER status statements, student-data summaries), which could reduce market competition and change available publishing business models.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes competitive grants to expand open textbooks, tightens course-material disclosure and OER definitions, and requires a GAO study on textbook costs and implementation.
Creates a federal grant program to expand use of open textbooks at colleges and universities, strengthens campus course-material disclosure requirements, updates the legal definition of open educational resources (OER), and directs a GAO study on textbook costs and implementation. The bill funds competitive grants to produce, adapt, and promote high-quality, accessible open textbooks and requires institutions receiving federal aid to disclose more detailed pricing and digital-data information for course materials. The measure encourages faculty consideration of OER while affirming academic freedom, specifies application and quality-review requirements for grantees, and mandates a federal report within three years analyzing textbook costs, OER adoption, and compliance with the new disclosure rules.