The Rising Cost of College Textbooks

This post appears in the 30th Carnival of Money Hacks.



If you read my blog you know I have a son who is a senior in college. Paying for his education is really hampering my ability to achieve my financial goals as quickly as I would like. Having said that, I'm happy to do it. Willing as I am to make sacrifices to pay for my son's college education, the cost of his textbooks really makes me see red. I believe the textbook industry is a racket that burdens the already overburdened population of people trying to put their children through college. According to a 2005 GAO report the average cost of textbooks in 2003-2004 for a full-time student at a four year institution was $898. This semester my son is taking sixteen credit hours. Had I let him purchase the required textbooks at the University of Mississippi bookstore, a Barnes & Noble, it would have cost me approximately $550. That’s just for one average semester! As I previously wrote , he called me after the first two days of school with his list, I speed-shopped on Amazon, picked up a trial Amazon Prime membership and ended up spending $270. I don’t really feel better about that. I’m glad I saved the money but they are still too expensive.

In addition to the high cost of textbooks the other thing that really irks me is the frequency at which new editions are released. My son’s teachers all stressed which edition the students needed to buy for their class. I can understand the importance of the newest edition of the textbook in his American politics class but in his German class? Have they invented some new words since last year? His German book came bundled with a CD-ROM. The course also required some sort of online registration. I got the book and CD, one edition behind, for about half-price used on Amazon but then had to shell out $40 for the online thing, which comes free with the new book, totally cancelling out my savings. I’m going to be real curious, at the end of the semester, to find out how frequently he used the CD and the online program.

In researching the rapidly rising cost of textbooks the GAO found “that while many factors affect textbook pricing, the increasing costs associated with developing products designed to accompany textbooks, such as CD-ROMs and other instructional supplements, best explain price increases in recent years. Publishers say they have increased investments in developing supplements in response to demand from instructors. Wholesalers, retailers, and others expressed concern that the proliferation of supplements and more frequent revisions might unnecessarily increase costs to students.” (source) Wow, really?!

House Bill HR 4137 section 112 (previously section 110), the amendment of which was signed into law on August 14, 2008, addresses at least some of these concerns. Currently, when a professor receives the publisher’s list from which to choose his or her textbooks, the prices are not disclosed. HR 4137, section 112 will require publishers to provide faculty members with information on price, copyright dates of the three previous editions, any substantial revisions between the current edition and the previous and whether the textbook is available in any other format and at what price. It also requires publishers to sell their bundled textbooks in both bundled and unbundled formats. Finally, and the part I’m most happy about, it will require the college to list text books by ISBN number and retail price in their online course catalog. This requirement will give students and parents more time to shop around for better deals on their textbooks. Unfortunately for me these provisions will not become effective until July 1, 2010. I don’t think we need the government to step in and control textbook prices. If we have more information, we have more choices. If people are not willing to buy the new high-priced books in the University bookstores, the publishers will have to take a different look at their pricing structure.

While researching this article I came across a topic on the NY Times blog, “The Boards”, from April 2008, addressing this issue. I was amused to see the first comment on the blog came from a retired professor who appeared to be saying that if students could spend so much money on alcohol, they should have no trouble paying the high cost of textbooks. While the students may be buying the beer, I suspect it is mostly the parents who are buying the books!

Students can go to the Campaign to Reduce College Textbook Costs, which is a project of Student PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups) and Student Government Associations in fourteen states who are working to make college more affordable. They have, among other things a place where the students can sign up and get involved.

Check out this YouTube clip from a program called, “This is Messed Up” that does a good job of highlighting this issue.

I took an informal survey of my friends with kids in college and, although there were too many untracked variables to extract good data, we all agreed that we are paying too much for our kid’s books! We are frustrated with the lack of advance information available, which restricts our options for textbook shopping. My brother, who currently has three daughters in three different colleges in three different states, spent over $1,500 this semester on books alone.

If you have children for whose college education you are busily saving, or anticipating, you might want to get current with this issue. If you have children in college right now, how are you dealing with the rising cost of textbooks?