Although the current top concern of most students is to make it through finals week, they’ll have a not-so-new problem come 2014: the price of textbooks.
An American Enterprise Institute reported that the cost of textbooks has risen 812 percent since 1978. Today’s students shell out an average of $1,200 per year for textbooks and supplies. If you think that’s appalling, then prepare to balk at the fact that Minnesota students pay $200 more than that on average.
Sensing the plight of students in their respective states, U.S. Sens. Al Franken, D-Minn., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., recently introduced the Affordable College Textbook Act, seeking to curb textbook costs throughout public higher education.
The bill would primarily create a grant program that would support “open textbook” pilot programs at colleges and universities.
Open textbooks are textbooks under an open copyright license that instructors can legally edit and distribute to their students for free — though not for commercial purposes. This allows professors to shape a text to fit a course’s needs.
The University of Minnesota created its own online open textbook library last year. Although the selection of available texts is still small, the program could be eligible to receive additional grant funding under Durbin and Franken’s bill.
The University has seen success with its open textbook library. College of Education and Human Development director of academic technology David Ernst told the Minnesota Daily that CEHD students saved about $145,000 over three semesters.
The presidents of the Minnesota Student Association and Graduate and Professional Student Assembly supported the Affordable College Textbook Act in a Nov. 25 Minnesota Daily letter to the editor, saying textbook prices hurt student achievement.
Under the act, universities and colleges receiving grant money would have to ensure that all textbooks created with grant funds are free and accessible to the public.
Furthermore, the bill would also require grant-receiving institutions to report on the effectiveness of these pilot programs to lift financial pressure from students.
The bill would also focus on the textbook industry, which is ultimately responsible for prices limiting publishers from selling textbooks and other materials in bundles.
This is an important provision, as many courses simply require students to purchase an online access code for a website. Publishers could bundle these codes with textbooks and online versions of textbooks to raise prices.
Since publishers typically limit access codes to a single use for a semester, students must keep textbooks or sell them back for a fraction of the original price.
The bill would prevent this decidedly shady business practice, saving students money on materials they may not need or want.
I wrote a column earlier this semester about textbook piracy, which is becoming all too common for students looking to avoid being gouged on textbooks. The bill should reduce piracy, because it discourages students from resorting to these dire options.
Other members of Congress should listen to their peers and work toward creating affordable textbooks for all.