Video summary
Colorado Governor Jared Polis has long been a dedicated advocate for innovation and affordability within the education sector, bringing a wealth of experience from his early days on the state board of education to his current role as governor. His career includes founding charter schools specifically designed for at-risk youth and serving as their superintendent, laying a foundation for his continued historic investments aimed at ensuring every student can thrive. Under his leadership, Colorado is actively working to reduce costs for residents while making it easier and more affordable for individuals to acquire the skills and education necessary to secure good jobs and build prosperous futures.
A central theme of his address at the Open Education Conference was the critical need to eliminate textbook costs, which he identifies as one of the most accessible areas for immediate improvement in higher education. Governor Polis highlighted that even after addressing tuition and loan issues, families often face a sudden financial burden of nearly $1,000 per semester solely on textbooks, which does not provide direct educational services. To combat this, his administration has challenged colleges and universities to expand courses with zero-cost materials and has successfully launched "Z degrees," entire degree programs where students can earn an associate's, bachelor's, or master's degree without paying for any textbooks.
The impact of these initiatives is already significant, with over 2,000 courses across the state now utilizing zero-textbook costs and approximately 20 specific Z degrees available in diverse fields ranging from arts and sciences to nursing and mechanical engineering. These programs have collectively saved Colorado students more than $60 million that would otherwise have been spent on textbooks, demonstrating a tangible reduction in out-of-pocket expenses for families. By offering degrees in specialized areas like Spanish at CSU Pueblo or theater at Red Rocks without textbook fees, the state is proving that high-quality education can be both accessible and affordable, thereby empowering individual opportunity while driving collective economic success.
Looking forward, Governor Polis expressed a strong desire to learn from other educators and expand these successful models further, emphasizing that collaboration is key to finding better solutions for students everywhere. He believes that by sharing ideas and best practices at gatherings like this conference, the education community can develop methods that provide equal or superior educational experiences while substantially reducing financial barriers. Ultimately, his vision is one where innovative pathways continue to empower students and schools to succeed, ensuring that education remains a powerful door of opportunity for everyone in Colorado and beyond.
Read the full video transcript
[music]
Now, it's my great honor to welcome to
the stage someone who has long
championed innovation and affordability
in education, Colorado Governor Jared
Polus.
Governor Polus is a longtime champion
for education. He got his start in
public service on the state board of
education and founded several charter
schools for atrisisk youth and served as
superintendent of one of them, the new
America school. As governor, Polus has
continued to make historic investments
to ensure every student can thrive.
Under his leadership, Colorado continues
to save Coloradoans money and make it
easier and more affordable to get the
skills and education to get a good job
and build a prosperous future. Governor
Polus is a champion for in innovative
pathways that empower students and
schools to succeed. Please join me in
welcoming education champion Governor
Jared Polus. [applause]
Thank you.
Good to see you.
>> Well, we are thrilled to uh welcome you
to beautiful Colorado for the open
education conference. Uh hope that in
addition to a very productive conference
where you can find ways to save students
and families money on textbooks. I hope
you also get out to explore our state,
our beautiful outdoors. Yes, Rocky
Mountain National Park is open despite
the federal shutdown. Uh and we already
have skiing at two of our uh mountain
resorts are open. So, hope you get to
enjoy some of that. Uh, I want to thank
the Open Education Conference Board,
Colorado uh OAR Council,
um the uh our OEER Education and
Learning Innovation Unit, and [snorts]
many others. Uh the theme of this
conference is eyes on the horizon, which
really in many ways speaks to our
approach here in Colorado. We're always
looking around the corner to embrace
opportunity. What's next? Innovative
ways to make life easier and more
affordable for every Colorado. Uh,
education really opens the door of
opportunity for everybody. It's about
individual opportunity and collectively
that's about economic success, the
success of the private sector.
Individual opportunity powering economic
growth, the sum of the parts. And uh
we've uh been engaged in efforts to make
higher ed more accessible uh and
affordable across the board. So whether
it's making certain degrees lower cost
and low-income students being able to
attend uh college free. But one of the
areas that I focused on really since my
time in Congress because it's one of the
lowest hanging fruit in many ways is how
do we eliminate textbook costs? Because
once you've figured out the other stuff
and uh whether they're using PEL or
student loans or you've gotten the
tuition down or they're getting
scholarships, boom, all of a sudden it's
another $900 a semester, $1,200 a
semester uh whatever it is just on
textbook costs, not going to provide
direct educational services. And yes, uh
open resources uh provide the
opportunity to uh effectively zero out
that line for more and more students,
saving uh families money, making
education more accessible. And we uh
challenge Colorado colleges and
universities to expand [snorts]
uh uh their ways their their their
courses with uh zero-cost textbooks and
in fact even create what we call Z
degrees which are entire degrees where
uh you can get a bachelor's uh
associates and and even mast's graduate
with zero textbook costs. Um, across the
state, by the way, we now have over
2,000 courses that have moved to zero
textbook costs that have met that
challenge that we laid out.
And we have uh about 20 Z degrees and
they they range. You can get a Colorado
Northwestern Community College and
associates degree in the arts and
sciences, zero textbook cost at CSU
PBLO. Spanish degree, zero textbook
cost. nursing at Fort Lewis and
University of Colorado. Zero textbook
cost. Masters showing it's for grad
school mechanical engineering at the
school of minds which is uh really the
finest uh mechanical engineering program
in the state. It's our technical
university. No textbook toss. CU
mathematics major theater at Red Rocks
no textbook cost. So these are all part
of our Zderee program. So it's at the
course level. And then we want people to
take a step back and say, how can we
also show that the entire degree zeros
out those costs? And we've estimated the
Colorado students have na saved over $60
million that would have gone to
textbooks.
And uh we want to do more and we will do
more and we look forward to I think
you'll interact with folks from from
Colorado here and uh we want to learn
from you because we would like to expand
our Zderee programs and expand the
number of uh zero textbook courses as
well. And it's gatherings like this
where we can come together and learn
from one another and share ideas and
best practices and really find better
solutions
uh that can of course provide the same
or better often better educational
experience uh to uh people that are
enrolled and at the same time save
substantial out-ofpocket money on uh
textbook costs. So, thank you for your
time, your investment in this very
impactful work, and I truly hope you
enjoy your time in our beautiful state.
Welcome.
[applause]
[music]