{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/king-joins-colleagues-to-secure-5-million-for-textbook-grants", "King Joins Colleagues to Secure $5 Million for Textbook Grants", "2018-09-18", "2018", "2018-09", "Independent", "House", "ME", "Angus King", "K000383", "www.king.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\r\n Today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) today applauded the inclusion of a\r\nprovision allocating $5 million in additional funding for the continued\r\nimplementation of the Open Textbooks Pilot in the FY19 Departments of Defense, Labor,\r\nHealth and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Package. The Open Textbooks Pilot is a competitive grant program to\r\nsupport the creation and expand the use of open college textbooks textbooks\r\nthat are available under an open license, allowing professors, students,\r\nresearchers, and others to freely access the materials.  College is\r\nexpensive enough  textbooks shouldn't drive the price even higher, said\r\nSenator King. The Open Textbooks Pilot is an important opportunity to\r\nexpand the use of free educational resources at schools across the country,\r\nmaking sure that students have affordable access to the tools they need to\r\nsucceed.  Senator King has been a leader on this issue, along with\r\nSenators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.).In April, King,\r\nDurbin, and Smith led 23 of their Senate colleagues in a letter to the Chairman\r\nand Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health\r\nand Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-H) pressing them to\r\nprovide additional funding for the program in the FY19 funding bill.  The program was created with an initial $5 million\r\ninvestment in the FY18 Omnibus.The Department is in the process of\r\nreviewing applications for FY18 grants under the Pilot and is expected to\r\nannounce the first awards soon.  Durbin, King, and Smith, along with Representatives Jared\r\nPolis (D-Colo.) andKyrstenSinema(D-Ari.) in the House, have been working to ensure the program is\r\neffectively implemented by the Department of Education  sending letters to\r\nSecretary Betsy DeVos in April and August. Today's bill also includes report\r\nlanguage to ensure that the Department:  \r\nAwards FY19 funds through a new grant competition; \r\nUses the funds to\r\nprovide a greater number of grants in FY19  at least 20 grants with individual\r\ngrants amounting to $100,000 to $1 million; \r\nProvides institutions at\r\nleast 60 days to apply for grant funds; and \r\nRequires any tools,\r\ntechnologies, or other resources developed with grant funds for use with an\r\nopen textbooks to also be open and freely available.  The College Board estimates that the average student at a\r\nfour-year public institution of higher education should budget$1,250\r\nforcollege books and supplies during the 2017-18 academic year and $1,420\r\nfor students at community colleges. According to a survey by U.S. PIRG,\r\n65 percent of students decided not to buy a textbook because of the cost and 94\r\npercent of those students worried it would negatively affect their grade.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/king-joins-colleagues-to-secure-5-million-for-textbook-grants"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9157280437648296, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}