No mystery to textbook costs
Ventura Star 1/16/07
Ventura College is renovating its cafeteria and student center and finishing its sports complex. Oxnard College has fresh paint, new tiles and desks in the science wing and some English classes. Moorpark College has a new $7 million Child Development Center and a message-board system to keep students informed of campus goings-on.
Best of all, though, tuition has decreased. Because of an influx of state funding, students pay only $20 per unit instead of the previous $26 — a savings of $72 per semester for a student taking 12 units.
But not all is rosy as students gear up for the spring semester. Cheaper tuition barely makes a dent in one of the biggest college expenses: textbooks.
According to a July 2005 report to Congress, the Government Accountability Office found that, for full-time students at a four-year public institution during the 2003-04 academic year, textbooks cost $898 a year, or 26 percent of tuition and fees; at a two-year public institution, students paid $886 a year for textbooks, 72 percent of tuition and fees.
The Make Textbooks Affordable Campaign describes the problem in its October report, "Required Reading: A look at the Worst Publishing Tactics at Work."
A joint project of student public interest groups in several states, including the California State Student Association and the California Student Public Interest Research Group, the Make Textbooks Affordable Campaign found that, since 1994, the cost of textbooks has risen four times faster than inflation.
The reasons?
The campaign blames textbook publishers whose tactics, the report says, "include undermining the used-book market through frequent and unnecessary edition revisions; inflating prices by bundling books with CD-ROMS, workbooks and other materials most professors do not use; and concealing the cost of textbooks from faculty who make purchasing decisions on behalf of students."
Another problem, the campaign noted, stems from consolidation: Only five companies control 80 percent of the market. That hardly allows for the brisk marketplace competition that would help keep textbook costs down.
The solutions?
The campaign urges publishers to keep each textbook and supplemental material on the market as long as possible. That could be done by using print or online supplements to convey new information rather than printing new editions. Publishers also should disclose the length of time they plan to produce a current edition. And faculty should consider longevity when choosing textbooks.
Colleges and universities can also help by providing forums for students to purchase or rent used books and encourage online book-swaps.
Market factors also play a role. Increased costs of printing and paper must be reflected in a textbook's price, but artificially generating price increases by publishing a new edition with few substantive change does not advance education — only a publisher's bottom line.
Along with upgraded facilities and lower tuition, students should also have access to inexpensive textbooks, so that the true bottom line can be realized — a well-educated citizenry.