Sponsors
Introduced March 5, 2025 by Joseph Neguse · Last progress March 5, 2025
The bill aims to lower student textbook costs and expand accessible, adaptable open educational resources while increasing federal support, reporting, and institutional workload—trading upfront public spending and administrative burdens for cheaper, more transparent course materials over time.
Students: pay substantially less for course materials because grants, open textbook requirements, and course-listing price transparency increase adoption of free or low-cost OER and lower-cost formats.
Students with disabilities: gain improved access because funded projects must use accessible digital formats and include quality/accessibility reviews (Section 508‑conforming materials).
Teachers and institutions: receive training, adaptable open materials, data, and support that make instructional materials easier to customize and update, improving teaching flexibility and potentially lowering institutional instructional costs.
Colleges, faculty, and bookstores: face short-term and ongoing administrative and faculty workload burdens and transition costs to create/adapt OER, ensure accessibility, meet reporting requirements, and maintain disclosures—straining smaller or resource‑limited institutions most.
Taxpayers: federal costs may increase because the program authorizes unspecified appropriations and funds GAO/Secretary reporting and grant programs (i.e., 'such sums as necessary').
Students: not all will see savings because guidance (not mandates) can produce uneven OER adoption across courses and some niche subjects may lack high‑quality open materials.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a DOE competitive grant program to expand open textbooks, tightens OER definitions and disclosure rules, and requires a GAO report on costs and implementation within three years.
Creates a federal competitive grant program at the Department of Education to expand production, adoption, and quality assurance of open textbooks (open educational resources) at colleges and universities. It tightens federal definitions and course-material disclosure rules, requires accessibility and faculty consultation, allows grant funds for development and faculty training, and tasks the GAO with a report on textbook costs and program implementation within three years.