US: S.1704 Affordable College Textbook Act of 2013

Date: 2013/11/14
Policy Status: Proposed
Language: en
Jurisdiction: National
Country: United States of America
Institution:
Policy license: copyright

Tags: textbooks, colleges, bill, draft law

Policy Title: S.1704 Affordable College Textbook Act of 2013 - Go to the policy
Author(s): Senator Richard Durbin

Description: United States Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois and Al Franken of Minnesota have introduced legislation called the Affordable College Textbook Act that will create a grant program to support open textbook pilot programs, ensure that any open textbooks or educational material created using program funds be freely and easily accessible to the public (via CC BY), require entities receiving funds to complete a report on the effectiveness of the program, improve existing requirement for publishers to make all textbooks and other learning material available individually (rather than as a bundle), and require the Government Accountability Office to report to Congress by 2017with an update on the price trends of college textbooks.

Policy Comments:

Links:

• Senator Durbin's press release
• SPARC Applauds Senators Durbin and Franken for Bill to Make College Textbooks more Affordable (SPARC press release)
• US Senators seek to make college textbooks affordable and open (Creative Commons blog)