Affordable Higher Education News

Last week, California legislature passed an innovative bill, SB832, The College Textbook Affordability Act, aimed at reducing the costs of college textbooks.  The bill will become law pending Governor Schwarzenegger's approval.

As hundreds of thousands of students throughout California head back to school this week, they are likely to spend between $300 and $500 on textbooks alone. That price-tag might shock the average college freshman, but for the past few years, textbooks prices have skyrocketed so that those kinds of prices have become the norm for upperclassmen and parents and families have been left struggling to cover the costs of basic materials.

One of the reasons that textbooks cost so much is that the marketplace operates outside of normal market pressures. Faculty choose the text for students, who then must buy the book in order to succeed in the class. Publishers exploit this aberrance by aggressively marketing expensive books and not disclosing the price differences between books to faculty. This drives costs upwards. 

 According to a CALPIRG report, Exposing the Textbooks Industry, 94% of surveyed faculty said they would take price into consideration when picking a textbook for a class, but only 38% of faculty said they always got an answer after enquiring about the price of a textbook.

"Governor Schwarzenegger has the opportunity to make textbooks affordable by signing SB 832. This bill would require textbook publishers to post their prices upfront in all of their marketing materials, so that professors can easily shop around for the best book at the best price," said Tessa Atkinson-Adams, student CALPIRG Chair at UCSB. She went on to say, "SB 832 is the ONLY bill supported by student groups, the California Teachers Association, and the Community College League of California, among others. Who opposes it? The textbook publishers, who want the Governor to veto SB 832 and sign an ineffective bill instead (AB 1548) that would give professors too little, too late."

The increasing cost of college textbooks has had a ripple effect on other aspects of higher education, for example Sheryl Hayes, Director of Financial Aid at UC Riverside noted the impact this has on financial aid. "Textbook and supply costs for UC Riverside students for the 2007-08 school year are expected to average $1,700, based on student survey data. With over 10,000 students on financial aid, we are sensitive to the need to contain costs for our students wherever possible. Efforts to make textbooks more affordable would help all of the 17,000 students attending UC Riverside.

"For too long, California college students have dealt with outrageous textbook costs.  Publishers set the cost, faculty makes the choice, and students pay the price," says State Senator Ellen Corbett, the legislator who authored SB832.  "It is time for the textbook publishing industry to level with their consumers and end their deceptive marketing practices."

Additional Supporters of the bill include the California Association of College Stores, California Community Colleges Office of the Chancellor, 

Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and numerous faculty and student groups throughout California.