College Textbook Affordability
Act Clears Senate
DENVER—Today the Senate gave final approval to Senate Bill 73, sponsored by Senator Ron Tupa (D-Boulder) and Representative John Kefalas (D-Ft Collins), which would help lower the cost of textbooks in Colorado.
The College Textbook Affordability Act will prohibit college professors from ordering textbooks until they know how much the publisher is going to charge for those textbooks. The proposal also requires publishers to disclose changes made to each new edition of their textbooks. The bill will also prohibit publishers from bundling textbooks with additional materials such as CD-ROMs, as they are rarely used by instructors or students but significantly increase the price of textbooks.
“Passage of Senate Bill 73, the College Textbook Affordability Act, will save students and their parents hundreds of dollars a year in college expenses,” Tupa said. “This bill is an important piece of legislation that reduces the overall cost of higher education, by injecting competition into the otherwise “closed” college textbook market.”
Tupa represents Boulder, which has the highest student population in the state. Many of his constituents are already making enormous financial sacrifices to even enroll in colleges and universities.
The bill next heads to the Governor for signature.
