Senator Al Franken wants to make college textbooks free. The Minnesota Democrat is taking a stand to combat the climbing problem of student expenses and debt. Textbooks are one of the things that contribute significantly to the expenses of college students. Franken’s new bill would work to make free textbooks.
The group would make online “open textbooks” that are available for the use of anyone.
“When I worked in school, I worked less than 10 hours a week,” Franken has said. “I’ll go to a roundtable and say, ‘How many here work 20 hours a week?’ Most of the hands go up. ‘How many work 30?’ A lot of hands. ‘How many work 40 hours a week?’ There will be some hands. That’s very difficult to go to school and go full time.”
CityPages explained the bill like this:
Co-sponsored by Franken with bill buddy Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, the Affordable College Textbook Act works like this: Higher ed institutions apply for government cash to fund the creation of a shareable book. That otherwise marked-up educational content could be built on or customized by other schools and tweed jacketed academics to suit their courses.
For more on this, read the article from CityPages titled: “Al Franken Wants To Make College Textbooks Free.“
