Foster wants to cut cost of college education

U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Geneva, has introduced legislation designed to reduce the amount of money students pay for textbooks by making more information “freely accessible to the general public.”

According to the College Board, each student spent $805 to $1,229 on college books and supplies in 2007-2008, depending on the type of institution attended.

“Skyrocketing textbook costs, along with the high costs of tuition, room and board, often create a financial barrier that has become increasingly more difficult for students to penetrate,” Foster said in a news release. “By making high-quality educational materials freely accessible to the general public, students would save money on textbooks.”

The Learning Opportunities with Creation of Open Source Textbooks Act of 2009 is designed to make open-source content freely available to students to download on their computers.

It would require governmental federal agencies to devote a portion of their educational efforts to developing open-source materials, specifically in the areas of physics, chemistry and mathematics.  

Open-source materials are those that are posted on a Web site and are available to download or redistribute free of charge. Such materials would be posted on the Federal Open Source Material Web site, which would be created by this legislation.

“Posting these open-source materials is a common-sense solution that will allow our students to have access to the most up-to-date and accurate information available – without the burden of high prices,” Foster said in the release. “College-level open-source coursework materials in math, physics and chemistry represent a high-priority first step in this area.”

The legislation also creates a grant program to support private institutions or individuals that are interested in working on open-source projects.