Bill would help make textbooks affordable
Multistate effort would tell professors of costs, changes
By Eric Swedlund
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Congress and several state
legislatures are advancing measures designed to halt the rapid price
increase of college textbooks by requiring publishers to disclose the
books' cost to professors and outline any substantive changes in new
editions.
In Arizona, a bill backed by university students and professors is
the latest in a series of steps pushed by a student-run campaign to
make textbooks affordable. Identical bills have been introduced in the
House and Senate, and while hearings haven't been scheduled, the
backing of key lawmakers is promising, student leaders say.
Textbook costs for Arizona students are on par with the national average of roughly $900 to $1,000 per year. According to a 2005 federal study, textbook costs rose at four times the rate of inflation over the previous decade.
Students, professors and supportive lawmakers view the proposals
as consumer-protection measures that can give students lower-cost
options.
Price-disclosure legislation is a key component of the national
Make Textbooks Affordable campaign, said Nicole Allen, spokeswoman for
the coalition of Public Interest Research Groups and student
associations involved. Similar laws have passed in five states and are
being considered in at least seven more.
"What unites all these bills is they require publishers to disclose prices to faculty," Allen said.
The Government Accountability Office report cited several
practices in the textbook industry that contributed to the rapid price
increase, including the more frequent release of new editions and the
"bundling" of books with CD-ROMs and other instructional supplements.
In addition to the disclosure measures, both the federal
legislation and the Arizona bills would mandate that textbooks that are
bundled with supplemental materials also be available separately.
The Arizona legislation has the support of state Rep. Jennifer
Burns, a Tucson Republican who chairs the higher education committee.
Burns has scheduled a hearing on the bill this month.
"We're trying to bring some light to the cost and some discussion
so faculty are aware of it and think about the price when they're
thinking about which book to choose," Burns said.
The disclosure laws won't completely solve the issue of high
textbook costs but would enable students to align with professors to
seek out the best textbook options, said Tommy Bruce, the University of
Arizona student body president.
"There's this inherent disconnect because the faculty don't have
to purchase the textbook. The students do, but the faculty don't know
what they're spending," said Bruce, who has spent as much as $775 on a
semester's required books.
Bruce said students have documented such insignificant changes as
a new cover, reordered chapters and slight differences in problem sets
in new editions of textbooks. On occasions, professors advise students
that past editions are sufficient for the needs of a class.
"If professors were given the option and saw that the only change
was a switch between the order of chapters five and six, they could
keep the current edition," Bruce said.
The UA Faculty Senate last week approved a resolution supporting
the legislation, which Faculty Chair Wanda Howell said couldn't be
delayed. Both students and faculty members agreed that a unified front
will put the bill in a stronger position.
Bruce said student groups have turned to lawmakers because changes
they can accomplish on their own campuses already have been achieved.
One student's experience
Seema Patel, a UA junior studying microbiology, has turned to
online sellers like Amazon.com and other alternatives after spending
about $700 on books for just one semester last year.
"I had to find alternate sources because it just wasn't
sustainable," said Patel. "There's no way I could have afforded to
spend that much again."
That semester, Patel was loaded down with science books, all of
which she had to buy new. Two of them — for calculus and organic
chemistry — came "bundled" together with solutions manuals that weren't
necessary but added around $30 to the cost of each book.
"Students should have the ability to choose what books they need
and don't need for a class," Patel said. "When you bundle them
together, you're forcing them into things they don't need. Especially
for the calculus class, I was mad because I didn't open the solutions
manual once."
Patel said she hasn't had much luck hunting for used books or selling books back. One $110 book earned her a $9 buyback.
She supports proposed legislation aimed at requiring publishers to
disclose more information, such as whether new editions have
substantial changes that make the expense worthwhile. Publishers are
taking unfair advantage of students who are forced to buy high-priced
books, she said.
"I think that different state governments need to put pressure on
publishers to stop coming out with books every year that just have a
few pages different," Patel said. "It's frustrating that publishers
profit on situations like that."
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