By Brian Ireland
It’s not news to today’s college students that the costs of higher learning are skyrocketing. CSU’s tuition rose 20% between 2011 and 2012. Combined with inflation, the cost of living, supplies, transportation, and all the other little incidentals, it’s becoming harder and harder for the modern college student to afford their degrees. Naturally, we’re all taking out more loans to help curb the rising costs, taking out an average of over $20,000 over 4 years (but that’s for another article altogether). If the rising costs of tuition are a swift kick to the gut then the rising cost of textbooks is an additional slap in the face. In this article, we will explore that additional slap in the face.
Why are textbooks so expensive?
We have all had the joyous experience of scanning through our new syllabi, scribbling down our ISBN numbers and skipping to the CSU Bookstore to attain our materials for next semester. Once inside, we anxiously search for used copies of our required textbook because we know this is going to save us money. Our excitement turns to anguish as we mutter to ourselves in disbelief the same two words almost every other college student in America mutters to themselves at the beginning of every semester. The dreaded two words that invoke trembling flashbacks of Ramen Noodle dinners and extra shifts at work from semesters past. The dreaded two words that steal your hopes of having any of your grant or loan money refunded back to you. Possibly the only two words that can cause you to cycle through the five stages of grief in under five seconds: “New Edition”.
For us seasoned scholars, we know this is the difference between a $50 textbook and a $200 textbook. In fact, today’s college student over the course of a year will shell out $1000 on textbooks alone. If the rising of costs was a footrace, college tuition and textbooks would be neck-and-neck while the cost of homes, medical care, and everything else lags behind.
New editions are a main culprit in the rise of textbook costs. In recent decades it has become the industry standard for textbook publishing companies to issue a new edition every 3-4 years regardless if the subject matter has changed at all within that time. Ripoff 101, a paper published in 2004 by CALPRIG explored the ins-and-outs of the rising costs of textbooks. They found that new edition textbooks cost on average 58% more than older editions of the same book. Of the professors surveyed in the study, 76% thought new edition textbooks were justified half or less of the time. One chemistry professor pointed out how basic chemistry doesn’t change yet publishers release new editions every 4 years.
The Racket
Why would publishers edit, produce, and print new editions of textbooks that have little-to-no new content? Because it makes them more money. New edition textbooks are generally accepted as the best new version to use by professors and are thus adopted. Why every 3-4 years? Textbooks become cheaper the more they’re circulated and the more they’re used. So for every semester a textbook is being used, the less money a publishing company is making off of it. Three to four years is coincidently the average amount of time it takes for a publishing company to start losing money on that edition. The solution? New editions of textbooks regardless of new or updated content.
This, of course, impacts already hurting college students in two ways. We’re forced to buy new editions every semester depending on which course just received its frivolously updated textbook. Also, if we used an edition of a textbook that was in that 3-4 year-old range, there’s a solid chance bookstores aren’t going to buy back that edition because a new, frivolous edition is already being released. Sound familiar?
The Fluff
Another contributing factor to the unprecedented rise in the cost of textbooks is bundles. We’ve all gone to buy a new edition textbook that’s shrink-wrapped with CD’s and online study tools. In some cases identified in the CALPIRG study, bundled new editions cost twice as much as identical editions without the bundle. The percentage of new editions being released with bundles is also rising, with 53% of new editions coming this way in 2004. This is all fine and good; additional study tools and learning material can’t be a bad thing right? Sixty-five percent of professors surveyed admitted they “rarely or never” use the bundled materials in their course work. So with bundled new editions becoming the new norm, used editions become even more obsolete while the price of new edition textbooks go even higher, justified by teaching aids that teachers rarely use.
The Disconnect
College students are sincerely stuck between a rock and hard place when it comes to the rising cost of textbooks. By the very structure of American schooling students are taught from a young age to respect their teachers and follow the rules. We are constantly reminded about college, the unwavering objective lying just beyond the finish line. “If we can make it there”, we think,” then we’ve really made it”. We finally find ourselves in a college classroom looking over our syllabus which tells us we have to buy a $200 textbook… are we really going to say no?
College students are complacent because we know no other way. Publishing companies know this and it is for this reason they have us over a barrel. They could charge us whatever they wanted for a textbook if our teacher told us we had to.
But here’s another troubling statistic from the CALPIRG study: 42% of teachers surveyed had no idea how much their required textbooks cost. A separate study done at Michigan University in 2009 found that 66% of professors didn’t know what their textbooks cost their students. This indicates a very real disconnect between the buyers of textbooks and the makers of textbooks. Teachers act as proverbial middlemen in this equation, selling the publisher’s goods not knowing what they’re selling or how much it really costs.
Praise and Solution
You’ve got to hand it to the publishing companies. They found a weakness in America’s education system and they figured out how to exploit it. American college students remedy the rising costs by taking out more loans. The government responded by releasing more funds for college students due to the rise in cost. Publishers argue that printing textbooks is expensive with 30% of their cost going to editing and publishing alone, which is true. That’s fine I feel them on that one, until I read an article in the New York Times that exposed publishing companies selling identical textbooks overseas for half the price. Well played publishing companies, well played.
There is a growing online industry that’s trying to curb these rising costs. Internet marketplaces like half.com and amazon.com offer students lower prices than most campus bookstores, but this is largely only on used textbooks. Many campus bookstores all over the country are also unveiling book rental programs. Rams Bookstore here in Fort Collins offers textbooks at up to 80% off when you use their rental program, which is cheapest solution I’ve found thus far.
https://oerknowledgecloud.com/sites/oerknowledgecloud.com/files/textbookripoff.pdf
http://www.lib.umich.edu/files/SPOTextbookBackground.pdf
https://ramsbookstore.bookrenterstore.com/courses/
Pictures
http://www.sustainablesushi.net/
http://sellcollegetextbooksforcash.org/
Brian Ireland's 