H.R. 1886 — Affordable College Textbook Act

This section states congressional findings concerning the high cost of college textbooks as a barrier to higher education—including an average student budget of $1,290 for books and supplies at four-year public institutions in the 2024–2025 academic year and an 82% price increase for new textbooks from 2002 to 2012—the potential for open educational resources to save students more than $1 billion annually, prior federal investments in such resources, and the need for educational materials to be accessible to individuals with disabilities.

This section establishes a competitive grant program administered by the Secretary of Education, using amounts appropriated under subsection (k), under which eligible entities—institutions of higher education, consortia of such institutions, or consortia of states on behalf of such institutions—may receive funding, after consultation with relevant faculty, to support projects expanding the use of open textbooks (i.e., open educational resources usable as textbooks for postsecondary courses) to achieve student savings while maintaining or improving instruction and learning outcomes. Grant applications must include plans for promoting and tracking open textbook use and estimated student savings; identifying marketplace gaps and creating or adapting textbooks as needed; quality review; assessing impacts on instruction, outcomes, and costs; dissemination and adoption; faculty consultation and professional development; post-grant updates; and accessibility for students with disabilities. In awarding grants, the Secretary gives special consideration to applications demonstrating the greatest potential for student savings, expanded use beyond the grantee, and high-quality, adaptable open textbooks for high-enrollment courses, including those developed with campus partners such as bookstores; allowable uses include faculty professional development, textbook creation or adaptation, supplemental materials (including for students with disabilities), and efficacy research; and new works must be released under a non-exclusive, royalty-free public license requiring attribution.

This section revises textbook transparency requirements under the Higher Education Act of 1965 (i.e., provisions requiring publishers, faculty, and institutions of higher education to disclose information on course materials to reduce student costs) by (1) adding a definition of "open educational resource" (OER) as a teaching, learning, or research resource offered freely in at least one form under public domain or open copyright license allowing free use, reuse, modification, and sharing with attribution; (2) revising the definition of "substantial content" to mean a college textbook that may include printed materials, website access, and electronically distributed materials; (3) expanding publisher disclosures to faculty to include whether materials are OERs and, for primarily digital formats, a summary of student data collection terms and opt-out options; (4) requiring institutions to disclose on (or link from) internet course schedules, for each listed course, the ISBN (or author, title, publisher, and copyright date if unavailable), retail price, applicable fees, OER status, and—for digital materials—a link to the publisher's data summary (or indicate if information is unavailable); (5) requiring institutions to assist affiliated college bookstores in obtaining course materials and enrollment information to verify availability, source lower-cost options (including alternatives for faculty consideration), and maximize student format options, with authority to set faculty due dates for submissions; and (6) requiring publisher websites to identify available OERs.

This section expresses the sense of Congress that institutions of higher education should encourage faculty to consider open textbooks (i.e., free or low-cost educational materials) when selecting course materials, consistent with academic freedom principles that affirm faculty's right and responsibility to choose pedagogically appropriate materials.

This section directs the Comptroller General of the United States to submit a report to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, not later than three years after enactment, on the cost of textbooks to students at institutions of higher education. The report must examine (1) implementation of section 133 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1015b)—which requires transparency in course material costs and options, including open educational resources—as amended by section 4 of this Act, covering availability of textbook and open educational resource information on course schedules, publisher compliance, and costs and benefits to institutions, faculty, and students; (2) changes in textbook costs; (3) factors contributing to those changes, including open textbooks; (4) the extent of open textbook use at institutions; and (5) how institutions track open textbooks' impact on instruction and student learning outcomes.