Textbook reform bill passes House, goes to Senate

A bill seeking to significantly reduce textbook costs to college and university students has passed the Virginia House of Delegates and now is being considered by the state Senate.

House Bill 1478, introduced by Delegate Glenn Oder, R-Newport News, is pending before the Senate Education and Health Committee. The House unanimously approved the proposal in January.

The legislation would make the faculty at colleges and universities submit textbook lists to on-campus bookstores in a timely manner. It also would limit “bundled” sales in which textbooks are packaged with workbooks – making it hard for students to sell them back after the semester.

In addition, instructors would be required to acknowledge textbook costs upfront and limit use of new editions. Copies of textbooks must be made available to students through university libraries, and revenue from book sales would be earmarked for financial aid, improvements to university services or other on-campus activities.

“Four out of 10 students can’t afford their textbooks,” said Wesley Harris, student body president at Virginia Union University in Richmond. “That’s especially critical in areas like nursing and biology, where textbook costs are higher.”

Harris said textbook costs equal about 25 percent of tuition costs at four-year institutions and about 75 percent of tuition costs at community colleges.

Typically, students spend about $800 a semester on textbooks. Four out of ten students surveyed by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia said they could not afford to buy all of the textbooks required by their professors.

Often, students are told to purchase a specific edition of a text and are required by professors to acquire the books quickly.

“The consumers are not in control,” Harris said. “They can’t control which book or which edition they need to buy.”

On-campus bookstores usually supply students’ book needs. Those stores, while conveniently located, can charge higher-than-normal prices for their books because of the captive demand.

On-campus stores often offer textbooks packaged with supplemental materials such as workbooks, DVDs or CD-ROMs. Theoretically, such bundles save students money over individually priced products. In practice, however, many professors don’t use some of the bundled items.

“You should be able to buy your books without bundling,” said John Matthews, a student at Wytheville Community College. “The supplemental material is rarely used. Including these items raises the prices.”

Moreover, if students buy a textbook and workbook as a bundle, they typically cannot sell just the textbook back to the bookstore after the course.

The stores buy back the books at a small fraction of the original costs, said Oder, who also introduced a textbook market fairness act in the General Assembly last year.

“Resale prices are usually 10 to 15 percent of the price paid,” he said. “There’s sticker shock both ways. As textbook prices continue to rise, it is critical that we bring free market forces to bear on the cost of textbook to save families money.”

Oder’s bill would encourage bigger textbook resale markets by requiring faculty to submit their book lists in a timely manner. This would allow bookstores to buy back more textbooks from students and make more used books available each semester at a lower price to students.

Having more used books available for purchase would also discourage textbook turnover. Oder’s legislation would require universities’ boards of visitors to create policies encouraging faculty to reuse older textbook editions, provided the newer ones aren’t significantly different.

Matthews believes that section of the bill makes sense.

“Molecular biology may change every year, but ancient history doesn’t,” he said. “This would allow used books to stay on the market longer, giving consumers more choice.”

Oder said he is encouraged by the number of young people who have come out in support of his legislation.

“These young adults are off at college or community college trying to change their world,” he said. “Just think what they’ll be able to do when they get out in the work world.”