The average college student spent nearly $2,000 on textbooks in the 2019-2020 academic year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Hardback textbooks routinely cost up to $400, and each new edition of a book can increase its price a further 12 percent. To help many students meet the challenge of soaring book costs, Diablo Valley College is now taking advantage of a California program known as Zero Textbook Cost. ZTC would eliminate or reduce the amount of textbook costs at some community colleges. The program works in compliance with Open Educational Resources (OER), which makes educational material publicly available to students to be copied, shared and used nationwide.
