Bill > HB4058

This bill establishes a work group under the Higher Education Coordinating Commission to explore and suggest ways to make college textbooks more affordable for students across Oregon's post-secondary institutions. The work group will review existing state laws and federal provisions, such as the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, which deals with textbook bundling and price disclosure, and then identify and examine various cost-saving strategies. These strategies include options like statewide bulk purchasing, used book exchanges, promoting open-source materials created by Oregon faculty, using statewide licenses, shared online resources, a central repository for free or low-cost materials, textbook rentals, facilitating peer-to-peer sales, print-on-demand publishing, and collaborating with other organizations. The work group is also tasked with recommending how community colleges and higher education institutions can implement these strategies, ensuring that any recommendations respect academic freedom, maintain instructional quality, foster student success, and comply with copyright law. They must actively involve students, faculty, bookstore managers, and publishers in their analysis, hold public meetings, and report their findings and implementation needs to the Legislative Assembly by November 1, 2012, with the provisions of the bill taking effect on July 1, 2012, and expiring on the convening of the 2013 legislative session.