Colorado Reauthorizes OER Program for Five More Years

Governor Polis signed House Bill 26-1016 into law on June 1, reauthorizing Colorado's Open Educational Resources grant program through 2031. The bipartisan bill was sponsored by Representatives Jacque Phillips and Rick Taggart and Senators Lisa Frizell and Judy Amabile. While the reauthorization comes with reduced state funding for 2026-27, the program's track record makes a strong case for continued investment.

Governor Polis, joined by bill sponsors, advocates in front of the Flatirons. Image source.

Since the launch of its statewide OER program, Colorado students have saved nearly $60 million in textbook costs representing an 11-to-1 return on state investment. Institutions across the state have converted more than 2,200 courses to use openly licensed materials, now serving over 176,000 students each year. Seventeen complete zero-textbook-cost degree programs have been established in fields including nursing, mathematics, and business, so students can earn credentials in workforce-critical areas without paying for course materials.

Governor Polis at the 2025 Open Education Conference in Denver on October 28–30.

Last week, Governor Polis recognized many of the people driving these results at the 2026 Colorado OER Conference, held May 29 at Arapahoe Community College. Dr. Emily Ragan of Metropolitan State University of Denver received the new Open Education Legacy Award — a founding member of the Colorado OER Council whose work has generated an estimated $10 million in student savings at MSU Denver alone. Arapahoe Community College received the Governor's Award for Institutional Advancement, recognized for embedding OER across all seven of its academic pathways and surpassing $4 million in cumulative student savings. See the full list of 2026 award recipients.

Colorado's program remains one of the strongest state-level models in the country, with historical funding of approximately $1.1 million annually. In an extremely tight budget year, the appropriation for 2026-27 was set at $275,000, reducing the grants available to Colorado faculty. The Open Education Association lobbied to pass this bill and will advocate for restoring the program's full funding in future years.