Lawmakers Study Ways To Cut Cost Of Textbooks (WaPo)

[eppur_se_muova]

Prices Are Called 'Burden on Students'

By Philip Rucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 30, 2008; Page B01

Maryland lawmakers voiced support yesterday for legislation to control the escalating costs of college textbooks, including a measure that would prohibit public university employees from taking benefits from publishers in exchange for assigning particular books.

Several bills that would affect the college textbook industry are moving through the state legislature at a time when students across the nation are complaining about textbook prices. Although no votes have been cast, the bills appear to be gaining broad bipartisan support. Meanwhile, the influential House Ways and Means Committee is preparing its own comprehensive bill on the subject.

Drawing particular scrutiny are agreements between bookstores and universities under which, lawmakers allege, both parties profit from the sales of books students are required to buy for their classes.

Barnes and Noble operates the official campus bookstore at the University of Maryland campus in College Park. The store is authorized to sell textbooks for as much as 25 percent above the wholesale price, and the bookstore pays the university between 10 and 14 percent of gross sales, according to the terms of the operating contract.

"They're trying to make a profit," Del. Marvin E. Holmes Jr. (D-Prince George's) said. "My concern is the students. How can we find a way for students to buy the books to serve the purpose of their classes as cheap as possible?"
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more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/29/AR2008012903043.html?hpid=sec-education

[LiberalFighter]

1. What is the optimum number of years for textbooks to be viable?

Require professors to use textbooks for 5 years or more.

Having the same textbooks available for a minimum time will increase the market of students. Reducing start up costs of new textbooks.

Most courses should be able to meet this requirement. Any courses that has something minor not covered by the text books should utilize addendums or handouts.

[RavensChick]

2. Exactly!

I just paid 120.00 for a new set of textbooks for a computer class last week. Since I'm going to a community college I thought the price of books would be a little reasonable. They're not, so for my money I'll take a chance and get used books for my business classes. Whoever markets textbooks to all the colleges and universities should know that we're not rich, and while we need the books for our courses we don't need to be paying through the damn nose!

[RepublicanDad]

8. not true

[uppityperson]

10. I guess you were upping your count so you could start a topic. Byebye

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4516918

[RepublicanDad]

4. Very true

[RepublicanDad]

7. how is that possible financially?

[RepublicanDad]

9. don't think so

[Fairfighter]

11. Texbooks are expensive!

over 100 dollars most of the time. And in times of recession, that can hurt one's pockets.

[RavensChick]

13. It sure can!

I guess with the 120.00 I paid for the computer books I need for my class it'll help me down the road in some places, but for the books I have to get in my major (Business Management), unless we're allowed to get used books, it's very hard to pony up any book at and above 100.00! I feel sorry for those just starting out now this semester how hard it is.

[Mabus]

12. Don't even get me started!

It's such a racket. I enrolled in a Calculus class one year but had to leave school for a semester for personal reasons. I re-enrolled in the same level Calculus class the next semester thinking that I already had the book that was required but I had to buy a new one. I compared the two and found that they had basically rearranged the problems and called it a new edition. And, of course, this rendered the previous edition of the book I had purchased obsolete and I couldn't sell it back.

I can understand the need to update textbooks for classes that are very dynamic and where the materials need to be fresh but there has to be a less expensive way to do it. But really, when's the last time that a new mathematical formula came along that necessitated changing the entry level class formulas?

I was so glad when I got to law school. A number of the books have pockets in the back that you can insert addendums and recent updates in. You get the addendums, stick them in the handy pocket at the back of the book and you've got the latest case materials. This is true especially for "Horn" books (reference books on various subjects). I had a couple of profs who said not to buy the most recent edition and then they told us the cases that we would need to download and/or provided us handouts with the pertinent parts of the cases that we needed to study. I had at least three classes where the case materials were put together by the profs themselves because they got tired of having to go through the new editions and change the page numbers on their syllabi. Like the calculus book some of the newer editions did little more than rearrange some of the questions or case notes at the end of sections. My Professional Responsibility class materials consisted of two books containing the federal and state rules and a loose bound notebook with materials that the professor had put together himself.

[RavensChick]

14. I wish it was like that too,

but with all the colleges and univesities in financial straits themselves nowadays someone's gotta earn some pocket change here and there. In my business class last fall, I managed to get the previous edition of the same textbook for around 5.00 from a great used book store in College Park, across the street from UMD, whereas the new edition was selling for 150.00! When I told my prof and the class she nearly fainted and my classmates asked me for their address, LOL! The next week, all but around 6 of them had the same book I bought, and the prof had no problem with us using them. Same topics, same assignments, same material covered. The only difference was a CD-ROM and better pictures in it (hence the price tag).

You're so right about it being a racket! Even when I went to another college in the 80's I bought as many used books as possible (except in my major, which was Theatre), and in the end I saved a lot of cash. So until these companies wake up and realize that, I'll get them used or earmark enough to cover the costs for new ones.

[Mabus]

15. That's incredible

That's just incredible.

I always liked buying used books too. I used to look for the ones with decent comments and highlighting. I know it sounds sounds silly but it often helped on the tests. Whenever I realized I had a used book that highlighted portions that the instructor was emphasizing I knew I was using a book from one their former students. It was even better when I found a book that had been used by several former students.

You'd almost think the amount for some of the books would be less than some national best-sellers. After all, the textbook industry has a pretty damned good idea of how many of the textbooks are sold on yearly basis. Surely the number of generic college calculus textbooks sold on college campuses across the country rivals the number of books sold by any best selling author. Hundreds of students at thousands of universities and colleges all buy the same book around the same time. Heck, it's even better than that. Unlike best selling authors selling to the public, textbook makers have a niche in the market that they can exploit 3 or more times a year (summer, fall and spring semesters). Best selling authors often hit a peak in sales that declines over time.

Best selling authors may see another peak in their sales if the book is made into a movie or a television show but then it fades again. And if they are lucky enough, their sales go through the roof if they start using their book in college classes. I had a teacher whose reading list included some fiction bestsellers (iirc, "Bridges of Madison County" was one of them). It was an English class called "Innocence/Experience" where we discussed how events in the lives of literary characters changed them. The textbook makers are, for the most part, repackaging the same product over and over again as new or improved when it isn't.

And what's up with publishing the same problems, assignments and what-not over and over again and charging a higher price? Heck, for the $145 you saved by buying used, you could buy a decent digital camera and take your own pictures. You might even have enough left over for a 20 pack of CD-R's that you can burn whatever you want on.

Oh. :grr: I told you not to get me started. ;)

[RepublicanDad]

3. dang kids

[RepublicanDad]

5. how can that be?

[RepublicanDad]

6. is that financially possible?