[ale] open source textbook bill

[Jim Kinney]

I stumbled across a notice for opensource textbooks being promoted at the US
senate level.

I LIKE THIS!!!

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s111-1714

I found the link from here:
http://opensource.com/education/09/12/open-textbook-bill

As someone with a college student (OK - _2_ college students with the spouse
in grad school) I like the idea of making the big classes books freely
available. There is no need to purchase a math book (whose basic content
hasn't changed in 20 years) just to have it get superseded by an "updated
edition" that kills the used book resell price. Ditto on freshman english,
history, chemistry, physics, etc. Or the underhanded process used by one
school (which remain nameless as it's on Indian Creek Dr and part of the
University System of Georgia as a 2-year school) to block students from
getting their books from alternate sources by not having the book-to-class
data available until the day before classes begin (when the data has been
set in stone at least 3 months prior) which blocks students from buying used
books from ebay and amazon, etc. at less than half the price of the school
bookstore.

-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
Actively in pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness
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