Bill > HB2780

This bill, known as the textbook affordability via open sourcing act, aims to make higher education more affordable by incentivizing the use of "open source instructional materials," which are defined as free digital textbooks, manuals, and other educational readings essential for a course. Under this act, any entity that publishes or creates these materials and provides them to private or public higher education institutions in Washington at no cost, where an instructor officially adopts them as the primary resource for a course and students receive them for free, will be eligible for a tax credit. This tax credit is equal to fifty percent of the "certified value" of the open source material, which is calculated by multiplying the number of students in courses using these materials by the cost of the traditional materials they replace, with a maximum credit of $35,000 per year per entity and a statewide cap of $1.5 million annually. The program is set to run from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2028, and the legislature will evaluate its effectiveness in reducing student costs.