U.S. Congress Renews $5M Open Textbook Pilot for Second Year
I&#x27;m glad something is being done. But while the public continues to blame the lightning-rods instead of the actual source of the issue, the problem will continue.<p>What I mean is that book publishers take the blame, and LIKE to take the blame, because that takes heat off the actual bad guys in this story: college professors and their departments.<p>It is they that decide which books are used in what courses, and it is they that are given the public trust to protect student&#x27;s education. Instead they value the kickbacks (in the form of offloaded workload, free materials, free automated testing, etc) over what&#x27;s best for their students.<p>It is an inherent moral failing in US academia where the almighty dollar has yet again wrecked havoc.<p>Open textbooks won&#x27;t succeed for the same reason that cheaper textbooks haven&#x27;t, the gatekeeps, the ones that create the artificial monopoly for particular textbooks: professors&#x2F;departments, will continue to act in a self-interested and immoral way, and the public will continue to blame publishers.