Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 4, Part 7.

Under present law, the Tennessee Promise scholarship provides Tennessee high school graduates the opportunity to attend a community or technical college free of tuition and mandatory fees. This bill adds provisions for equitable access to course materials under the scholarship program. This bill: (1) Requires the Tennessee higher education commission (THEC) to develop a model program of equitable access to course materials and requires eligible public postsecondary institutions to adopt and implement THEC's model program of equitable access to course materials for each course offered by the institution for Tennessee Promise scholarship students. The model program of equitable access to course materials must be developed and implemented no later than the beginning of the 2022-2023 academic year; (2) Requires that all required materials assigned in courses offered for Tennessee Promise scholarship students be available to such students through the model program of equitable access to course materials. This bill provides that departments, schools, or other divisions of eligible public postsecondary institutions and instructors of courses offered for Tennessee Promise scholarship students may freely select the course materials required for the courses. This bill further provides that the model program of equitable access to course materials will not restrict the academic freedom of instructors to choose how they teach their respective courses. Course materials selected for a course that are included in the model program of equitable access must be listed on the syllabus as the required course materials. Graduate courses and other courses at four-year public postsecondary institutions that are not offered for Tennessee Promise scholarship students do not have to be included in the institution's model program of equitable access to course materials, but may be included; (3) Requires that the model program of equitable access to course materials developed by THEC must use open educational resources when appropriate; (4) Requires THEC to select a vendor to provide course materials through the model program for equitable access to course materials pursuant to a competitive process prescribed by a request for proposal (RFP). The vendor selected must own and maintain a platform for the digital distribution of course materials. This bill sets out other details regarding vendors and the RFP; (5) Requires THEC to contract with the vendor of course materials selected pursuant to item (4) for the provision of all course materials required for courses offered to Tennessee Promise scholarship students at eligible public postsecondary institutions. Under the contract, TSAC will reimburse the vendor for the cost of the course materials supplied to Tennessee Promise scholarship students with funds from the Tennessee Promise special reserve account; (6) Requires the vendor selected pursuant to the RFP to provide all materials in the model program of equitable access to course materials digitally whenever digital materials are available. If digital materials are not available, then the vendor will provide the course materials in physical format. This bill also requires the vendor to negotiate with at least 10 publishers of course materials that have the largest number of sales to eligible public postsecondary institutions in the state for items such as payment, digital access, and perpetual access to eBooks. If a publisher refuses to agree to such terms, then the vendor will provide the required course materials. THEC will not reimburse the vendor for the course materials. THEC must notify the eligible public postsecondary institutions and instructors requesting the course materials that the instructors may select the course materials, but students will be responsible for purchasing course materials that are not provided through the model program for equitable access to course materials; (7) Specifies that if a public institution of higher education chooses to make the model program of equitable access to course materials available to students who are not Tennessee Promise students, then the vendor may charge the students to access or obtain course materials provided through the model program at a competitive market rate; (8) Requires the vendor selected pursuant to the RFP to establish an open educational resources(OER) fund. The vendor will deposit an amount per Tennessee Promise scholarship student in the fund annually. THEC and the vendor will negotiate the amount per student to be deposited. The vendor will distribute the funds annually to OER publishers with content selected by eligible public postsecondary institutions and instructors as the required course materials in courses offered for Tennessee Promise scholarship students pursuant to a plan approved by THEC; (9) Requires the vendor to provide Tennessee Promise scholarship students with course materials at no cost to the students. TSAC will not reimburse the vendor for the cost of course materials provided by the vendor to students who are not Tennessee Promise scholarship students. The vendor may charge students who are not Tennessee Promise scholarship students the costs of any course materials provided to such students; and (10) Makes the model program of equitable access to course materials subject to audit by the comptroller of the treasury. For purposes of this bill, "course materials" means materials indicated by an instructor on a course syllabus as required for a course taken by a Tennessee Promise scholarship student at an eligible public postsecondary institution. "Course materials" includes, but is not limited to, books both digital and physical, manuals, software, interactive software, art and lab supplies, and other supplies. Also "open educational resources" means materials for teaching or learning that are either in the public domain or have been released under a license that allows them to be freely used, changed, or shared with others. "Open educational resources" includes materials ranging from a single video or lesson plan to a complete online course or curriculum and also includes the software platforms needed to create, change, and share the materials.