The high price of a few good books

Shane Wade
Opinion Editor

U.S. student debt just reached $1 trillion dollars. Rent was due last week. You didn’t get the last job you interviewed for and you’re still trying to buy textbooks.

While VCU recommends students budget between $300 and $400 per semester for a combination of textbooks and computer software, I’d hardly be surprised if a student spent $500 on textbooks alone. Despite the proliferation of e-books and e-readers in our digital era, the price of textbooks, whether they are new, old, rentals, or digital, still cost an exuberant amount.

Throwing down $200 on a textbook wouldn’t be so outrageous if textbooks weren’t the collegiate equivalent of a wedding dress, in that you use it for a single class and never take another glance at it.

Research by Bigwords.com, a textbook price comparison site, showed that despite industry trends towards rentals, buying and selling textbooks back resulted in increased savings for students. The study also found that buyback offers dropped an average of 25 percent from the beginning of the term to the end of the term.

Further, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit consumer-advocacy organization, found that seven out of 10 students have skipped buying a textbook required for a class because of the price.

Looking at that data, it doesn’t look like textbook companies and publishers are out to help students. To be fair to them, we do live in a consumer-driven, capitalist market and companies, at the end of the day, are out to make a profit.

But that particular drive for profit is ultimately a disservice to both themselves and the education sector. The more expensive textbooks are, the less likely students are to buy them, meaning less profit for the companies. If students can afford tuition, but can’t scrounge up an extra $200 to $300 for textbooks, is college really a good investment for them? At what point does the student’s investment venture hit the point zero-sum and become a loss?

Higher-education reform is a multi-level platform project, involving both large-scale financial reforms in terms of private and federal student loans and small-scale academic initiatives that take a critical look at the current system and do away with the unnecessary.

Do students really need to pay $160 on a Spanish textbook that also includes an e-book version of the textbook? Do students really need an audio disc for a Norton Anthology if they already have the text? How useful are the interactive quizzes and extras that are included in biology and physiology bundle packs and should they be optional for students? Calculus hasn’t changed significantly in a century, why should we buy a new edition?

Publishing companies and bookstores shouldn’t be penalized for trying to turn a profit, but students shouldn’t be penalized for their interest in a higher education either. The textbook industry has a monopolized grip on students and the exorbitant requirements by professors for an expensive textbook that students will use but a few pages of isn’t helping.

Maybe the solution is for students to be thriftier and try unconventional methods like sharing textbooks. Maybe the solution is for professors to be less reliant on a physical text and instead draw upon selected sections that can be found outline. Maybe textbook cost should be bundled with courses. Whatever it is, action needs to be taken to make higher education less of a money-trap and more of a profitable investment for students