Sponsors (4)
Introduced February 26, 2025 by Richard Joseph Durbin · Last progress February 26, 2025
The bill aims to lower student costs, improve accessibility, and increase transparency by promoting open educational resources and disclosures, but it does so at the cost of federal spending, added administrative burdens, potential ongoing maintenance and market impacts, and uncertain uptake.
Students — especially low-income students — would likely pay less for required course materials as the bill promotes open educational resources (OER), open textbooks, and greater price/transparency in course listings.
Students with disabilities would gain better access because grantees and institutions must provide accessibility‑conforming formats and update plans for materials.
Faculty and colleges would gain access to adaptable, higher-quality teaching materials, professional development, and evidence to inform course planning, which can lower instructional costs and improve teaching options over time.
Taxpayers would face increased federal spending because the bill authorizes grants and programs with open-ended appropriations language to support OER development and dissemination.
Faculty, institutions, and publishers will incur added administrative and compliance burdens (applications, reporting, quality reviews, accessibility and data‑use disclosures), increasing workload and institutional costs.
Colleges and creators may face ongoing costs to develop and maintain open textbooks after grant funding ends, and perpetual open-licensing requirements can limit commercialization or revenue opportunities for creators and publishers.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Creates a federal grant program to expand open textbooks, requires colleges to disclose OER status and publisher data-use summaries for digital materials, and orders a GAO report on textbook costs.
Creates a federal competitive grant program to fund creation, adaptation, dissemination, and long-term upkeep of open textbooks for higher education, requires colleges to disclose whether course materials are open educational resources (OER) and to publish publisher student-data summaries for digital materials, and directs a GAO study on textbook costs and OER use. It also asks colleges to help verify availability and lower-cost sources for course materials and expresses a non-binding view that faculty should consider OER while preserving academic freedom.