This bill creates a federal grant program to help colleges and universities use free, openly available textbooks instead of expensive commercial ones. The government would give money directly to schools or states to support projects that increase the use of these open textbooks—books that are either in the public domain or released under licenses that let anyone use, copy, modify, and share them for free. The bill also requires the Government Accountability Office to study and report back to Congress within three years about how much students are actually paying for textbooks and what's causing those costs to keep rising. Essentially, it's an attempt to tackle the real problem many students face: textbook prices have become so high that they're a major financial burden. By funding schools to adopt free alternatives, the bill aims to reduce what students have to spend on course materials while still ensuring they have quality educational resources.

Affordable College Textbook Act

Durbin, Richard J.

Affordable College Textbook ActThis bill provides statutory authority for an open textbook grant program for&nbsp;institutions of higher education (IHEs). (A similar program, known as the Open Textbooks Pilot program, first received federal funding in FY2018.)Specifically, the bill directs the Department of Education to make grants to IHEs or states on behalf of IHEs&nbsp;to support projects that expand the use of open textbooks. An open textbook is an educational resource that either resides in the public domain or has been released under an intellectual license that permits its free use, reuse, modification, and sharing with others.Within three years of the bill's enactment, the Government Accountability Office must report to Congress on the cost of textbooks at IHEs. This report must examine, among other topics, the factors that have contributed&nbsp;to the change in the cost of textbooks.