WBBM 780: Legislation Would Ease Cost On College Textbooks

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One of the major expenses of going to college or graduate school is the cost of the books. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin has introduced legislation designed to take some of those costs out of the equation.

Durbin introduced legislation in the past week that would create a competitive grant program to prompt universities, educators and organizations to create textbooks that can be made available free online.

"This is coming. Trust me," Durbin said. "It's coming quickly because young people know how to use the Internet in ways their parents and older folks can't even imagine. And there are going to be opportunities for learning through that Internet with textbooks and I want to make certain that we have the best texts on the Internet available to people."

Durbin said it could make the difference between a college education and dead-end jobs for thousands of young adults each year. He cited figures from the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, which said textbooks cost the average student between $800 and $1,200 a year, and estimates that 200,000 qualified students fail to enroll in colleges each fall because of the cost.

Durbin said he hopes his legislation can become a way to remove some of those financial barriers.

"It isn't like the old days when you went to the bookstore and got ripped off for books that were too heavy to carry to class," he said. "We are now in the world of the Internet and we are now working on the concept of textbooks that evolve as information evolves."

The measure would authorize the grants each year through 2015, require applicants to provide a plan for quality review, a plan to assure the widest possible availability of the text, a plan to assure the widest possible adoption of the text in college courses and a plan for tracking and reporting adoptions of the texts at colleges and universities.

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