Washington D.C.— U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said today he has joined Senate colleagues to introduce legislation designed to help students manage costs by making high quality textbooks easily accessible to students, professors, and the public for free.
“With the cost of college attendance skyrocketing, students shouldn’t also have to spend hundreds, or in some cases thousands, of dollars extra to access textbooks that they will use for a few classes,” Wyden said. “Open textbooks will ensure that students get all the essential academic tools they need at their fingertips for free.”
The legislation, known as the Affordable College Textbook Act, would authorize a competitive grant program to support the creation and expansion of open college textbooks—textbooks that are available under an open license, allowing professors, students, researchers, and others to freely access the materials.
Textbook costs are one of the most overlooked costs of going to college, but they can be a substantial barrier to pursuing a college education. According to the College Board, the average student at a four-year public institution of higher education spent $1,290 on college books and supplies during the 2024-2025 academic year. In a 2020 U.S. PIRG survey, 65 percent of students decided not to buy a textbook because of the cost, and 94 percent of those students were worried it would affect their grade negatively.
The Affordable College Textbook Act expands and updates provisions from the College Textbook Affordability Act contained in the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act. The provisions aimed to make more information available to students looking to manage college textbook costs. The 2008 law required textbook publishers to disclose to faculty the cost of a textbook to their students, required schools to publish textbook price information in course catalogues when practicable, and required publishers to offer unbundled supplemental materials so that students had choices. The provisions took effect on July 1, 2010.
Specifically, the Affordable College Textbook Act would do the following:
- Authorize a grant program, similar to the Open Textbook Pilot program for which Congress already has appropriated $54 million and saved students more than $250 million. The grant would support projects at colleges to create and expand the use of open textbooks, with priority for programs that would achieve the highest savings for students;
- Ensure that any open textbooks or educational materials created using program funds would be free and easily accessible to the public;
- Require entities who receive funds to complete a report on the effectiveness of the program in achieving savings for students;
- Improve and update existing requirements for publishers and institutions that provide information on textbook costs, including new disclosure requirements to students on how companies providing digital materials may use student data; and
- Require the Government Accountability Office to report to Congress with an update on the price trends of college textbooks.
In addition to Wyden, the legislation was introduced by Senators Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Angus King, I-Maine, and Tina Smith, D-Minn, with U.S. Representative Joe Neguse, D-Colo, introducing companion legislation in the House.
The Affordable College Textbook Act is supported by SPARC, National Association of College Stores, Student PIRGs, U.S. PIRG, American Federation of Teachers, American Association of Community Colleges, Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs, Association of Community College Trustees, Association of College & Research Libraries, Association of Research Libraries, CAST, Creative Commons, National Education Association, Open Oregon Educational Resources, the Council of Administrators of Special Education, Today’s Students Coalition, UNCF, and Young Invincibles.