Governor Andrew Cuomo is making it easier for New Yorkers to attend college these days, by earmarking $8 million for students’ textbooks. It's an attempt to reduce the expense of books for State University of New York ,and City University of New York students, according to a press release from the Governor's office.

Textbooks can cost hundreds of dollars each with some classes requiring more than one, then multiplied by several classes, and that's in addition to the cost of classes! It really is cost prohibitive for many hoping to attend college. This looks like it will certainly help. The Open Educational Resources Initiative is what this allocation is being called, and it’s making textbooks and other lab materials available by giving students the ability to download these materials, edit them and share them with others.

A year from now 260,000 students in New York will have been given free, or discounted books, while saving some $28 million.

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