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Report to Congress: Textbook prices skyrocketing
By: Chris Sannino
Issue date: 6/8/07 Section: News
Originally published: 6/8/07 at 4:44 AM EST
Last update: 6/8/07 at 4:44 AM EST
Originally published: 6/8/07 at 4:44 AM EST
Last update: 6/8/07 at 4:44 AM EST
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Congress' letter to the ACSFA said the average estimated cost of books and supplies for college students today is approximately $900 per year. The letter also contained figures showing that textbooks equal 26 percent of an average four-year tuition, 76 percent on average for community colleges.
The Make Textbooks Affordable Campaign has sought to recognize and document the factors that allow the prices of textbooks to rise so greatly.
"The market has a set of very unique dynamics that give the publishers a disproportionate amount of market power. Students have no market power and then publishers are able to take advantage of that situation by getting away with practices that they wouldn't otherwise be able to get away with," said David Rosenfeld, National Director for the Student Public Interest Research Groups who oversee the Make Textbooks Affordable Campaign.
With the release of the report confirming what many students already know about textbook prices some students have questioned the value of a book.
"I spent over $900 on textbooks, only a few of which I actually used enough to justify the expense," said Matt Prockup, a freshman majoring in electrical engineering. "Drexel doesn't make the textbook burden any easier by making us buy Drexel editions that cost more and can't be sold back and by not offering a greater number of used textbooks."
"In some classes, we either get halfway through and we're done with them or we barely even use them at all," said Jon-Anthony Maselli, a freshman majoring in mechanical engineering.
Students expressed frustration with the difference between the person who bares the cost and the professor who assigns the book.
"For example, one of the key dynamics is that the person who has to order the text book, the professor, is not the same person who has to buy the textbook, the student, and so what that does is automatically take price out of the equation," Rosenfeld said.
The report did offer some solutions for lessening the cost to students.
Implementing textbook rental programs or developing stricter faculty guidelines on the assignment of textbooks were mentioned by the report.
In January of last year, the state of Connecticut issued its own report on how to eventually resolve the textbook issue, some of which solutions were repeated in the ACSFA's report. Included were ideas for reforming financial aid so that money would be set aside specifically for buying textbooks and making it mandatory that college libraries have at least one copy of every required text within their stock.
