Students are still paying too much for their
textbooks, as book prices skyrocket at four times the rate of inflation, according
to the new report from the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group
(MASSPIRG).
“Many students are already really struggling to
pay their way through college,” said Saffron Zomer, Program Director with the
MASSPIRG Student Chapters. “The last thing they need is to shell out hundreds
of dollars more each year to buy textbooks. The numbers are really shocking –
the average student spends $900 on books each year – that’s 20% of the tuition
and fees at a four year public university. We need to let the publishers know
that students won’t continue to pay for their unfair business practices.”
The new report from MASSPIRG highlights one cause
for the artificially high prices – publishers don’t provide clear information
about their prices to faculty. Less than half the professors MASSPIRG surveyed
said that the publishers’ website which they used to research their textbooks
typically lists price information, and 77% said that when they meet with
publishers sales representatives, they rarely or never volunteer the price. Ninety-four percent
of the faculty MASSPIRG surveyed reported that they would take cost into
consideration when choosing their textbooks, but many of them do not know how
much the books they assign actually cost. “Publishers’ sales representatives
rarely volunteer the price of their books, and it’s highly variable whether or
not you can find that information on the publishers’ websites” said Professor
Joe LeBlanc, professor of English at Northern
Essex Community
College and President of the Massachusetts
Community College Council.
The common practice of bundling textbooks was
also found to drive up the cost of textbooks. ‘Bundling’ refers to the practice
of shrink-wrapping additional materials such as a CDROM or workbook to the text,
and currently effects about half the textbooks on shelves. MASSPIRG found that
many professors are not able to order the book they want without the additional
materials, even when they don’t intend to use them in class. “From a student
perspective the bundles are frustrating” said Alex Kulenovic, Student Trustee
at UMASS Boston “because, as well as having to pay for materials that aren’t
used in class, the bundled books are very hard to sell back at the end of the
course if anything from the bundle is lost or used.”
“We have a responsibility to make education affordable
for students” said Representative Steve Walsh of Lynn, who filed an Affordable Textbooks Bill
this session. “With the cost of higher education continuing to climb, this is
one area where the legislature can do a better job in easing students'
financial burden. It is a time for Massachusetts
to tell publishers their practices need to change". Representative Kevin J
Murphy of Lowell, House Chairman of the Joint Committee on Higher Education
also supported the proposed Bill: “When we talk about
affordable higher education, we tend to lose ourselves in discussions about
escalating tuition and fees,” said Representative Murphy. “We also have to work to ensure that we’re
keeping textbooks affordable and that students are not charged by publishers
for extra materials that they don’t need.”
