Wyden, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Help Make College Textbooks More Affordable

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 theAffordable 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.
TheAffordable College Textbook Actexpands and updates provisions from theCollege Textbook Affordability Actcontained in the 2008Higher 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, theAffordable College Textbook Actwould do the following:
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.
TheAffordable College Textbook Actis 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.