· Highlight Main Points in Chapter 4 · Discuss ways you have used or intend to use chapter information in your career. (Health and PE Teacher & Athletic Coach) Book website Essex, N. L. (2014). School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders (6th Ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.  Username: [email protected] Password: Beanymac1990 · Highlight Main Points in Chapter 4 · Discuss ways you have used or intend to use chapter information in your career. ( Health and PE Teacher & Athletic Coach) Book website Essex, N. L. (2014). School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders (6th Ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Username: [email protected] Password: Beanymac1990  Highlight Main Points in Chapter 4  Discuss ways you have used or intend to use chapter information in your career. (Health and PE Teacher & Athletic Coach) Book website Essex, N. L. (2014). School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders (6th Ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Username: [email protected] Password: Beanymac1990 About The Textbook Affordability Campaign Compiled By: Rita Senhaji Overview: From the 1970s to 2016, textbook prices rose at a rate three times higher than inflation. Covid-19 is adding financial and logistical challenges for students trying to buy course materials. Students already struggle to afford college tuition, so the hundreds of dollars they spend out of pocket on textbooks becomes a serious barrier to student success. Student PIRGs’ Textbook Affordability campaign aims to tackle this problem and make textbooks more affordable and accessible to students. Little competition in the college publishing industry- and therefore little consumer choice - has contributed to the continued rise in the cost of course materials. Students are held captive by 3 large companies (Pearson, Cengage, and McGraw-Hill) who control 80% of the textbook market. Publishers can get away with outrageous prices because students need to buy whatever textbook they are assigned by their professors. 2 The Impact of Covid-19 on Textbook Affordability COVID-19 has underscored existing fault lines of inequity across the country, especially in higher education. Students who were already in danger of falling behind pre-pandemic face new challenges. Students who lost their jobs or who have a reduced income cannot buy course materials. Students without high-speed internet cannot use solely online products or engage with remote courses. In short, low-income students may struggle to participate in classes that set up smaller financial hurdles and have additional fees after the tuition bill is paid. Source: “Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: Third Edition” U.S. PIRG Report 3 Problem According to three studies conducted by U.S. PIRGS in 2013, 2019, and 2020, a whopping 65% of college students continue to skip out on buying textbooks because they cannot afford them. In Fall 2020, ...

1. · Highlight Main Points in Chapter 4
· Discuss ways you have used or intend to use chapter
information in your career. (Health and PE Teacher & Athletic
Coach)
Book website
Essex, N. L. (2014). School Law and the Public Schools: A
Practical Guide for Educational Leaders (6th Ed.). Boston:
Allyn & Bacon.
Username: [email protected]
Password: Beanymac1990
·
Highlight Main Points in Chapter
4
·
Discuss ways you have used or intend to use chapter
information in your
career.
(
Health and PE Teacher &
Athletic Coach)
Book website

2. Essex, N. L. (2014). School Law and the Public Schools: A
Practical Guide for
Educational Leaders (6th Ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Username:
[email protected]
Password: Beanymac1990
Chapter 4
information in your
career. (Health and PE Teacher & Athletic Coach)
Book website
Essex, N. L. (2014). School Law and the Public Schools: A
Practical Guide for
Educational Leaders (6th Ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Username: [email protected]
Password: Beanymac1990
About The Textbook Affordability Campaign
Compiled By: Rita Senhaji
Overview:
From the 1970s to 2016, textbook prices rose at a rate three
times higher than inflation. Covid-19 is adding financial and

3. logistical challenges for students trying to buy course materials.
Students already struggle to afford college tuition, so the
hundreds of dollars they spend out of pocket on textbooks
becomes a serious barrier to student success. Student PIRGs’
Textbook Affordability campaign aims to tackle this problem
and make textbooks more affordable and accessible to students.
Little competition in the college publishing industry- and
therefore little consumer choice - has contributed to the
continued rise in the cost of course materials. Students are held
captive by 3 large companies (Pearson, Cengage, and McGraw -
Hill) who control 80% of the textbook market. Publishers can
get away with outrageous prices because students need to buy
whatever textbook they are assigned by their professors.
2
The Impact of Covid-19 on Textbook Affordability
COVID-19 has underscored existing fault lines of inequity
across the country, especially in higher education. Students who
were already in danger of falling behind pre-pandemic face new
challenges. Students who lost their jobs or who have a reduced
income cannot buy course materials. Students without high-
speed internet cannot use solely online products or engage with
remote courses. In short, low-income students may struggle to
participate in classes that set up smaller financial hurdles and
have additional fees after the tuition bill is paid.
Source: “Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: Third Edition”
U.S. PIRG Report
3
Problem
According to three studies conducted by U.S. PIRGS in 2013,

4. 2019, and 2020, a whopping 65% of college students continue to
skip out on buying textbooks because they cannot afford them.
In Fall 2020, 21 percent of students reported skipping buying
access codes.
Students who lack reliable internet access and those who suffer
from food insecurity reported skipping on buying course
materials at significantly higher rates than their peers
nationally.
Required textbooks and access codes force students to pay to
participate in classes they’ve already paid tuition for. 30% of
students who did not have reliable internet access reported that
they also skipped buying an access code (9 percentage points
higher than the general population). Overall, 2% of surveyed
students reported failing a class because they couldn’t afford
materials, 8% of those without internet access reported failing
classes due to the high cost of materials. 10% of students
reported missing meals due to COVID-19. Of those, 82% also
reported not buying a textbook, which is higher than the
national sample of 65%. Even more troubling, 38% reported not
buying an access code compared to 21 percent nationally.
4
Solution
The solution is to convince university administrators that open-
source textbooks will benefit students, allowing the hundreds of
dollars spent on class materials to be spent on other needs (i.e.

5. housing, food, etc.). In addition, it will show that the university
itself is a leader in OER and shows care for their students’
needs. This can be accomplished by gathering signatures on
petitions and faculty sign-ons in order to show support among
both students and faculty. We will then work with these
numbers to pass a resolution through the student government to
expand the OER program at UIS or propose new programs such
as an OER Faculty Awards program or Zero-Textbook-Cost
Degrees.
What are OERs?
Open Educational Resources (OERs) are available for free
online, free to download, and affordable in print. Open
textbooks and all OER materials are published under an “open”
license, allowing free and unfettered public use. OERs may be
an individual module, learning object, entire course, or full
textbook that can freely be adopted and assigned by professors
in their classes.
Many textbooks, especially for 100 level courses, have
information that can be easily found online for free, which
makes required expensive textbooks completely unnecessary.
6

6. Benefits of OERs
OERs can provide students with superior and more current
learning tools.
OERs can significantly reduce or eliminate the cost of required
textbooks.
OERs can increase access to higher education through greater
affordability.
OERs can be accessed by students after the course, unlike rental
textbooks.
Source: https://www.uis.edu/colrs/teaching/ope n-educational-
resources-oer-initiatives/
7
Goals
UIS already has an Open Educational Resources (OER) Fellows
Program. We would like to expand this program by pushing for
its continued funding and advertising it, so that it can be
utilized by more professors and departments.
During the fall semester, we aim to prove (through signatures
and sign ons) that affordable textbooks is a demand that needs
to be met. We also hope to introduce at least one new resolution

7. through the SGA in support of open-source textbooks.
Conclusion
Many students, particularly low-income and vulnerable ones,
are skipping on buying essential class materials because of their
high cost, which negatively impacts their performance at
school.
Despite being the users of textbooks, student voices are
underrepresented in the world of open education. We need to
reclaim this space, put our solutions out there, and let our
voices be heard!