The move comes after years of dissatisfaction with major textbook publishers, whose “disposable” workbooks often must be repurchased every year, generating high costs and significant waste. Nearly 1,400 schools (representing more than 650,000 students) have joined Neon to gain more control over price, quality, and sustainability.
Neon’s model is cooperative: schools contribute to the development of the material, and teacher-authors are hired to write and maintain it. The approach aims to produce adaptable, affordable textbooks at a much lower cost per student than current offerings. The arrival of Neon is already pressuring established publishers to rethink their pricing and practices, while government scrutiny and investigations into the textbook market intensify.
What’s Really Going On?
The problem
Schools are frustrated with the current textbook system. Many books are “consumable” workbooks that can’t be reused, forcing schools to repurchase materials annually. This increases costs and creates unnecessary waste. Meanwhile, publishers have strong market power, leaving schools with limited alternatives.
The Response: A New Cooperative Model
To regain control, schools are joining forces through Neon. Instead of buying fixed, expensive packages from large publishers, schools co-develop and co-own teaching materials. Teachers themselves write the books, ensuring the content aligns more closely with classroom needs and can be updated more easily.
Cost & Sustainability
Neon claims its model could dramatically reduce costs — around €20 per student per year for all materials — while also reducing environmental waste by avoiding disposable books.
Market impact
Neon’s rise is already shaking up the market. Traditional publishers are being pushed to reconsider pricing, formats, and sustainability. Meanwhile, government oversight of the textbook market is increasing, and potential regulatory action remains on the table.
The real movement
This is more than a switch of suppliers. It reflects a structural shift in education publishing: from passive consumers to active owners of educational content. It’s a push for affordability, sustainability, and educational autonomy — with the potential to reshape how learning materials are created and distributed.
And how does Levatus handles this
With Levatus, we want the same thing: affordable education without high percentages of budgets flowing straight into the pockets of suppliers that have near monopolies. Levatus will reinvent ownership of the whole publishing business in relation to education.