College textbooks can cost hundreds of dollars per course, but there are free, high-quality alternatives available online. This bill would create a grant program through the Institute of Museum and Library Services to help colleges — especially those serving low-income and minority students — adopt free digital reading materials for STEM courses. Schools would work with their libraries and faculty to find and curate open educational resources, and the program would track how much money students save compared to buying traditional textbooks.
Congressional Summary
No Cost Educational Resources Act of 2025This bill authorizes the Institute of Museum and Library Services to award grants to institutions of higher education (IHEs) for facilitating the adoption, adaption, and creation of open educational reading materials and establishing more open educational reading material courses.Open educational reading material refers to a free digital text that is publicly available to be downloaded and redistributed.Open educational reading material course refers to a science, technology, engineering, or math course offered by an IHE that uses only open educational reading materials as the form of the required readings for the course.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2025-12-12
- Date Added
- 2026-04-06