I don't have a huge readership here, but I hope there are enough of you out there who might be interested in this and willing to signal boost.
There is a group called OpenStax College, and they offer college level textbooks for free in pdf form, and for the cost of printing a hardcover version (around $50).
Of course, there is a catch. These books are considered "generic". They're peer reviewed, but open source, which always seems to catch a side-eye reputation, despite many open source solutions being superior to the paid alternatives.
However, if you're a homeschooler looking at upper grade high school materials, these are free, good, and clearly written.
If you are a teacher at the local community college, see if these would work for your courses. Statistically, your students are the ones pinching the pennies hardest - help them save that money for the pricey transfer school!
If you have children in a high school that is struggling to provide textbooks to their students, bring this up at the school board meeting - the print version isn't free, but usually cheaper than McGraw-Hill and Prentice Hall. Or see about getting locked Kindles to download coursebooks? You can currently get a 6 pack of Kindle Fires for $250, and they could hold ALL those free books!
This is a list of the schools currently using at least some of the OpenStax textbooks in their programs. I'm tickled to see Harrisburg Area Community College is one of them!
What do you think? Worth knowing about? Tell a friend!
Thank you so much for this link! It might be just what I need to refresh my 20+years ago university learning so that I can answer my unschooled boys' (ages 7 and 10) questions when they ask. I had hoped to pick up some used textbooks at a university used bookstore a couple of weeks from now, but this seems much better. I'm looking forward to reading these textbooks!
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