College students in Washington state will be the first beneficiaries of a state project to make inexpensive, open source textbooks available for the most popular college classes.

But the $1 million the state invested in creating educational materials for 42 classes will benefit more than just students in Washington. The course materials will be available to any college that wants to use them around the world, as long as promise to not charge students more than $30 to get printed copies of the materials.

Students who choose to use the books online and not get a hard copy will get to them for free. Either way, students will potentially save hundreds of dollars a course.

State Rep. Reuven Carlyle says he'll take aim next legislative session on K-12 books.