One of the largest barriers to further opportunity is now higher education itself.

Traditional textbook costs now amount to hundreds of dollars.

The arbitrary assignment of extreme prices to textbooks gives students only three choices: to seek out limited rental options, lose access to an educational resource entirely, or take on the cost to the detriment of their health and more. If colleges adopted the Open Educational Resources model, this would not need to be the case.

Free to access, free to use, and free to download online, open textbooks published under an “open” license give students their needed educational aides without adding extraneous financial pressure.

The restriction of textbook access through specific publishing companies only harms the financially vulnerable with no clear return beyond publisher profit. Schools should consider the obvious solution of Open Educational Resources before textbook prices cement themselves as a burden for students of future generations.

Heeyoung Hwang
Oceanside
July 6, 2023

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