Here’s something that ought to make my college-age colleagues happy: a plan by State Rep. Scott Hochberg to help keep the cost of textbooks down. I’ve printed the full press release beneath the fold, but I’ll quote the main piece here:
Rep. Hochberg and his colleagues propose six specific steps to reduce textbook costs:
* Require books to be used for at least three years whenever possible.
* Make it easier to shop around for better prices.
* Don’t require students to buy books, CDs, workbooks, etc. that the professor does not expect the class to use.
* Use state purchasing power to lower prices.
* Create a pilot program for rental textbooks.
* Prohibit gifts or payments from publishers that could influence book selection.
We had “rental textbooks” in my day, but back then we called it “selling the used textbook back to the bookstore”. You don’t usually get a very good price doing that, so I daresay a rental program would be cheaper. I spent up to about $60 on some books when I was a student, and that was 20 years ago. I shudder to think what some of them might cost now. The proposals above seem perfectly reasonable, so we’ll see what happens.
Full press release.
Democratic Legislators Announce Plan to Cut College Textbook Costs
As colleges kick off the fall semester, students and their parents are facing sticker shock when they buy their textbooks. State Rep. Scott Hochberg and several Democratic colleagues today outlined a plan to reduce textbook costs by increasing competition and making sure students are not required to buy more materials than they will actually use for each course.
“College textbook costs are rising much faster than inflation,” Hochberg said, “and students have no choice but to pay those prices. Students have told me that they often end up sharing books, copying necessary pages, using older editions, and doing whatever they can to save money. Meanwhile, publishers are changing editions every year and forcing students to buy extra materials like CDs and workbooks that they don’t need. Those practices must stop.”
“Anything we can save by cutting unnecessary textbook costs makes education more affordable for working families, without giving up quality,” added Rep. Hubert Vo. “Texas students spend around $1 billion for textbooks every year, so it’s really important that they get the most for their money.”
Rep. Hochberg and his colleagues propose six specific steps to reduce textbook costs:
* Require books to be used for at least three years whenever possible.
* Make it easier to shop around for better prices.
* Don’t require students to buy books, CDs, workbooks, etc. that the professor does not expect the class to use.
* Use state purchasing power to lower prices.
* Create a pilot program for rental textbooks.
* Prohibit gifts or payments from publishers that could influence book selection.
The Harris County Young Democrats have posted a survey on their web site to gather data about textbook costs at Texas colleges and universities. Students who want to report their textbook costs or make suggestions about how to reduce those costs can do so at www.HarrisCountyYD.org.
Rep. Alma Allen, who served 14 years on the State Board of Education, noted, “The State of Texas worries a lot about the cost of k-12 textbooks, because the state pays for those. But the cost of college textbooks doesn’t get any attention.” A recent Government Accountability Office report found that prices for new college textbooks have increased at more than twice the rate of inflation. Fulltime students spent an average of just under $900 for textbooks in 2003-2004. For some students, the cost of books can be more than the cost of tuition and fees.
The plan offered today would make more used books available by increasing the length of time books are used. Used textbooks typically sell for at least 25% off the cost of a new book, sometimes much less.
“For some students, being able to buy used books and sell last year’s books can make the difference between having a book and having to borrow and share,” said Rep. Ana Hernandez. “When books are obsolete after just one year of use, every student has to pay the entire cost of the book and then just let it sit on a shelf when they finish using it.”
Public colleges and universities would be required to make their book lists available to students early enough so they could shop around for the best pricing. Any book retailer could compete for students’ business. “With the Internet, students can shop online, but only if they know what books they need far enough in advance,” said Rep. Jessica Farrar. “Many times, that doesn’t happen. And some campus bookstores have exclusive rights to book lists, eliminating any chance for competition.”
Under the proposed plan, students could no longer be required to purchase materials that their professor does not expect to use in class. Many students today are required to purchase costly extras that come “bundled” with their textbooks. Much of the time, these CDs, workbooks and other materials are not used in the class, and just add cost. And some professors believe they must specify books for their classes even if they don’t intend to teach from them.
Rep. Hochberg said the group will take this proposal to Austin when the Legislature convenes in January. “We’ve had good discussions with higher education officials in our area, and look forward to working with them to pass meaningful legislation”.
My son is a freshman at the University of Saint Thomas. His textbooks and other required books for 5 classes cost $343. New hardcover textbooks seem to run about $80 to $140 each.
Wow, only $343 for a semester of textbooks? Must be at least one class using Dovers in there.
Not that this is the state’s business explicitly, though such a deal would be useful for many students in the same way the the UT System negotiated a nice licensing deal with Microsoft for various pieces of software at pennies on the dollar — the students get really cheap stuff, cheap enough to make it not worth pirating, and MS gets people with years of experience and potential for lockin using MS products, which as Matlab has shown with engineers can lead to significant adoption after college.
I sympathize with the students and with Hochberg’s desire to give them a break, but as a college professor I doubt this is going to work, and think it will have lots of negative effects.
I like the idea of reducing the “bundling” that happens w/textbooks, since most of these are add-ons that are only there to justify “new” editions.
But the lege keeps floating proposals that would essentially hand over the selection of textbooks for core curriculum classes across the state to some central committee somewhere. This is a really, really bad idea, especially in this state.
We already have this problem with K-12 curriculum, with perennial debates over textbook selection. Do we want some of our choicest Texas legislators choosing our biology textbooks statewide?
Same thing with making profs stick with textbooks that don’t work. Profs need the ability to switch if a particular book doesn’t work or a new one comes up.
Inertia will always keep most people teaching the same thing most of the time, but why force a prof to teach something that doesn’t work or is out of date?
What legislators might look at, apart from the rental proposal, which I like, is some kind of statewide arrangement with publishers.
And when they talk about “payments or gifts” I hope they’re referring to legislators, since I’ve never seen anyone offered money to adopt a textbook. Coffee cups, yes. Money, no.
dave