Members of Congress and the U.S. Department of Education began an official investigation of skyrocketing textbook prices in response to a report conducted by the U.S. Government Accountability Office that found textbook prices had gone up an average of 6 percent every year for the past 19 years.
Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.) requested the report two years ago, which found that the cost of textbooks has risen 186 percent since 1986 in comparison to general inflation of 72 percent. The investigation, which started last week, comes after a joint request from Wu and Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), and will be conducted by a U.S. House of Representatives advisory committee to find solutions to the problem of rising book costs.
The committee’s first hearing in Washington, D.C., included an address by economics professor and representatives from the GAO, publishing and bookstore industries and student public-interest groups. As part of the investigation, committee members will examine multiple student programs, including campus book-swaps and book-rental programs. The committee will also conduct field hearings across the country to get opinions from faculty members, students and other representatives before making final recommendations.
However, American Association of Publishers Executive Director for Higher Education Bruce Hildebrand disputed the GAO report’s statistics and said that today’s college textbooks have taken on an entirely new role in post-secondary education, generating almost $8 billion in sales annually.
“The problem with the study is that it was unable to tell the difference between an old-timing textbook and new, modern textbooks combined with technology,” Hildebrand said. “It was a total comparison between apples and oranges.”
With exponential growth in student-teacher ratios, textbooks have become more technologically advanced, with “bundling” where online instruments and additional CDs make up for what could not be covered during class hours, Hildebrand said.
Wu’s office did not return repeated phone calls for comment.
“Textbooks definitely contributed to the rising cost of a degree,” Jillian Schoene, Wu’s press secretary, told UC Berkeley’s Daily Californian. “We hope that this study will determine some ‘best practices’ that we can implement across the country in all colleges and universities.”
Hildebrand, however, attributed rising costs to students being increasingly unprepared for higher education studies. Students need supplemental resources geared toward improving their education, and many textbooks have added materials such as CD-ROMs, online tutors and solutions manuals to assist the faculty in addition to aiding the students, Hildebrand said.
Students disputed the need for more supplemental materials.
“I don’t think it’s fair how [publishers] come out with new editions almost every year,” said Revelle College junior Kory Swanson, a structural engineering major. “Also, they include new features in many textbooks like CDs, most of which aren’t even used. I think textbooks could be cheaper — I’ve never used any of the CDs that have come with any of my books.”
According to the study, students at four-year universities spend over one-fourth of college expenses on textbooks every year. Hildebrand disagreed, saying that students spend around $650 on textbooks annually — and that one cannot appropriately compare the price of tuition to the price of textbooks.
“Textbooks have always been an emotional issue,” Hildebrand said. “Somehow you’ve figured out how to get tuition paid, how to get your clothes together, how to save some beer money, how to pay for your cell phone and then you walk in and you have to pay for textbooks — and students have been upset about that for as long as any of us can remember.”
The average college textbook nationwide costs about $52, according to the National Association of College Stores. At UCSD, the latest edition of a structural engineering manual for steel construction was originally priced at $342.85, but students protested and were able to purchase the manual at a 65 percent discount, Swanson said.
Three years ago, California Public Interest Research Group, which lobbies government officials on behalf of students, brought attention to the rapidly increasing prices of textbooks by creating the Make Textbooks Affordable campaign. Since then, the campaign has helped faculty negotiate more affordable prices from publishers and promote cheaper ways for students to obtain textbooks.
When asked why universities don’t follow suit with the general high school system of checking out — rather than purchasing — textbooks and returning them when the particular course is over, Hildebrand stated that the practice is completely plausible for college — and that it all depends on the university’s preference.
“Publishers only sell [textbooks] wholesale; we don’t set the final prices,” Hildebrand said. “Everybody wants to fight about prices. But what about passing the course? Staying in school? Intellectual development? Education?”
Publishers are responding to increased demand from instructors for supplemental devices in textbooks by distributing more advanced editions at faster intervals, while wholesalers and retailers have shown concern for the idea that “more frequent revisions might unnecessarily increase cost to students,” the GAO report said.
Students can lower their textbook expenses by swapping books with other students, checking library reserves or asking faculty to create custom books, according to the Wall Street Journal.
