Now, we’ve written about how to reduce the amount of money you spend on textbooks before, and even what happens to each dollar that gets spent on textbooks, but this announcement is one of the first political steps taken towards reducing those costs.

If you live in Ohio, then you’re in luck. Governor Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) has announced that beginning in the spring of 2009, Ohio’s University System will begin offering e-textbooks at a drastically reduced price. How drastic? We’re talkin’ as much as 50-55% off of the price of the hard copy of the books! If your university is like most in the U.S., you probably get a stipend each quarter/semester for printing costs. Most students don’t use this stipend, so now just use it to pay for some of your textbook costs.

Ohio’s agreement with CourseSmart will offer the e-books to public and private universities, as well as adult learning programs. A great benefit of using CourseSmart is that you don’t need any special software to access the books, you can just view them from your web browser.

Congratulations to Governor Strickland for getting rid of a barrier that bars students from achieving financial soundness…and remember, you heard it from CollegeFinance101.com.

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