2008 Woodie Awards
Reining in Runaway Textbook Costs
Dovid Wildman
Issue date: 3/8/05 Section: Opinion
The first two days of this semester, I shelled out about $550 in textbooks; this year alone, I've surpassed the $1,000 mark. And that doesn't include the cost of the Seforim (Jewish religious texts) I need for the morning curriculum. The story is much the same for many students at Yeshiva and, for the financially strapped, it's a veritable second tuition.
This is not a concern specific to Yeshiva. The media, together with a handful of state legislative houses, has been abuzz with the results of the California Student Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) report, "Rip-off 101: Second Edition, How the Publishing Industry's Practices Needlessly Drive Up Textbook Costs." Published last month, the report documents in detail what we all already know: college textbook prices are inflated and unjustifiable. It reveals that the typical college student currently spends $900 a year on textbooks and that, more alarmingly, textbook prices are rising astonishingly quickly. Laying the blame squarely at the feet of the textbook publishers (Barnes & Noble isn't to blame this time), the report shows that publishers are boosting wholesale prices at more than four times the rate of inflation. Furthermore, publishers issue new editions of popular books chronically, forcing students to pay higher prices for textbooks that are, often as not, needless upgrades. And, to add insult to injury, publishers are charging Americans more than they do students in other countries. Popular publisher Thomson Learning, for example, "charges U.S. students 72 percent more, on average, than it does students in the U.K., Africa and Middle East" (calpirg.org).
There are a number of other egregious violations of reasonable conduct listed in the report (read it at calpirg.org). The publishing business' conduct is thoroughly deplorable - a greedy, monopolistic industry feasting on the well-worn wallets of young adults engaged in the noble pursuit of knowledge. The companies are seeing green, and it would be foolish to hope they someday limit their own profit margins. That said, something needs to be done, and the fingers are pointing at Big Brother to save the day.
This is not a concern specific to Yeshiva. The media, together with a handful of state legislative houses, has been abuzz with the results of the California Student Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) report, "Rip-off 101: Second Edition, How the Publishing Industry's Practices Needlessly Drive Up Textbook Costs." Published last month, the report documents in detail what we all already know: college textbook prices are inflated and unjustifiable. It reveals that the typical college student currently spends $900 a year on textbooks and that, more alarmingly, textbook prices are rising astonishingly quickly. Laying the blame squarely at the feet of the textbook publishers (Barnes & Noble isn't to blame this time), the report shows that publishers are boosting wholesale prices at more than four times the rate of inflation. Furthermore, publishers issue new editions of popular books chronically, forcing students to pay higher prices for textbooks that are, often as not, needless upgrades. And, to add insult to injury, publishers are charging Americans more than they do students in other countries. Popular publisher Thomson Learning, for example, "charges U.S. students 72 percent more, on average, than it does students in the U.K., Africa and Middle East" (calpirg.org).
There are a number of other egregious violations of reasonable conduct listed in the report (read it at calpirg.org). The publishing business' conduct is thoroughly deplorable - a greedy, monopolistic industry feasting on the well-worn wallets of young adults engaged in the noble pursuit of knowledge. The companies are seeing green, and it would be foolish to hope they someday limit their own profit margins. That said, something needs to be done, and the fingers are pointing at Big Brother to save the day.