High Cost of Textbooks -Clarion Ledger

Clarion Ledger

February 16, 2007
The high cost of textbooks
Students say prices are exorbitant

By Andy Kanengiser

y.kanengiser@clarionledger.com

Rick Guy/The Clarion-LedgerThe Jackson State University bookstore's textbook manager, Alex Durr, takes an inventory of the store's textbooks.
Nicole Dilg encountered sticker shock when first hunting textbooks at Mississippi University for Women's campus bookstore in Columbus.
The Tuscaloosa, Ala., resident had no idea the price would be $200 for a Spanish textbook and the accompanying handful of CDs, a workbook and dictionary.
That was her freshman year at the university.
Today, as a 20-year-old MUW junior and student body president, Dilg said she continues to pay big bucks for books.
It's not just an issue at The W. At Jackson State University, students pay nearly $183 for a new physics text that comes with a CD and study guide. It is the most expensive book in the JSU bookstore, employees say.
Concerns about high textbook prices are popping up at all eight Mississippi public universities and with parents. Looking for used books from friends and bookstores and buying books online are options, but students say prices are still too high at a time when tuition, housing and other college costs keep climbing.
Recently, student body presidents took their complaints to state lawmakers. The student leaders also urged Mississippi Higher Education Commissioner Tom Meredith to tackle the issue.
Lawmakers didn't give them much hope that anything could be done at the Capitol this session, but they are sympathetic.
Textbook prices for college students have gotten "outrageous," said House Education Committee Chairman Cecil Brown, D-Jackson. "I'm not sure they (students) can do anything other than being smart shoppers."
Brown said there's no need for publishers to continue to revise texts so often and charge more. "They don't reinvent history every two years."
Meredith said the issue needs to be addressed.
"The price of textbooks and other learning materials continue to be a growing concern and an impediment to many students," Meredith said. He will appoint a textbook task force, including student leaders and school employees.
Complaints and studies about textbook costs and news stories featuring bewildered students who say they don't know how they'll eat after shelling out $150 for a book aren't new to Bruce Hildebrand, the executive director of higher education at the Washington, D.C.-based Association of American Publishers.
"It's a perennial issue," Hildebrand said Thursday. "The problem is it's one, emotional, and two, anecdotal."
Here are a few things that students, parents and lawmakers should keep in mind:
Faculty members have choices in the textbooks they choose. Currently, there are 450 introduction to psychology and introduction to algebra texts on store shelves. They range in price from $23 to $127.
The average student at a four-year school spends $650 a year on textbooks.
The average price of a new textbook is $52.
Leslie Bauman served on faculty committees deciding what physics texts to use at Mississippi State University classes.
Professors will pay attention to price and what they think is the best book to teach students, Bauman said.
Bauman, who retired in December after teaching nearly 30 years at MSU, said a $30 physics book would have been a high price early in her academic career. But today, some physics texts include CDs, and other related items are quite pricey. Still, such books for introductory physics classes get good use at MSU, some lasting students two or three semesters, she said.
"We picked one and stick with it as long as we could," Bauman said. "You don't want to switch every year or two."
Dilg, a psychology major at MUW, pays $400 to $600 per semester for textbooks. She is a bargain hunter who typically buys used books. She spent at least $100 for a used introduction to psychology text. A new book, she said, would have cost her $30 to $40 more.
Students today get a lot more for their money with textbook "bundles" that include CDs, computer software and online support, Hildebrand said.
"They're getting a ton more for their money, and it gives them so many more ways to learn."
Concerns about spiraling textbook costs for students at Mississippi campuses reflect what's happening nationwide, say officials with the Atlanta-based Southern Regional Education Board.
"The high costs of college textbooks are a concern of virtually every college student and parent," said SREB spokesman Alan Richard, whose higher education group represents colleges and universities in 16 states.
"Few states have taken legislative action to help control college textbook costs, mostly because the options for lawmakers are limited," he said.
Dilg said textbook publishers deserve the blame. "It all falls back to the publisher. The publisher sets the price," she said.
Dilg said MUW students recently formed an advisory committee to the campus bookstore. They want bookstore officials to take their concerns to textbook publishers.
University of Mississippi student body president Roun McNeal, 21, of Leakesville said student leaders say the new task force is a good first step.
"I'm happy he (Meredith) is setting up a systemwide task force. All eight universities represent a much larger market force than Ole Miss," McNeal said.

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