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Textbook
price increases parallel inflation rate
By
Rachel Furlong
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer
Every
semester, students are faced with the inevitable
burden of purchasing textbooks, and the
burden just keeps getting heavier and heavier
each year.
When
Kenneth Boteler attended Cal State Long
Beach in 1956, spending $200 on textbooks
was considered outrageous. So imagine his
surprise when he learned that his granddaughter,
Crystal Boteler, a junior majoring in political
science, spent nearly $600 in a single semester.
The
average student spends almost $900 on textbooks
each year, according to a report titled
"Rip-off 101: 2nd Edition," released
Feb. 16 by California Public Interest Research
Groups (CalPIRG).
The
report studied the trends of the five most
frequently purchased textbooks at 59 universities
in the United States. Among the findings,
unnecessary new editions were made which
rendered previous editions useless and drove
up cost as high as 21 percent between each
edition published.
The
bundling of books with other features, such
as workbooks and CD-ROMs, also contributed
to high costs. According to the report,
unbundled versions of the same surveyed
books cost up to 10 percent less. However,
bundled books were found to be offered as
unbundled versions only half the time.
Shocking
to some is the fact that American students
pay 20 percent more on average for the same
book than their European, African, and West
Asian counterparts. British versions of
texts have been recommended by at least
one teacher as being similar and less expensive,
said Boteler.
The
report, which is a follow-up of an earlier
edition released by the organization in
January 2004, says textbook prices are increasing
at more than four times the rate of inflation
of all finished goods.
However,
Gary June, chief marketing officer of Pearson
Education, said that textbook prices are
actually increasing at rates close to the
rate of inflation.
According
to June, CalPIRG is saying that textbook
prices are going up 12 percent every three
years, but it is really 12 percent over
four years.
"That's
a big difference," June said. "Twelve
percent would be a lot if we really did
come out with a new edition every three
years, but its actually closer to four,
and at about four years, that is pretty
close to inflation rates."
Cees
Kendall, a professor at CSULB, said she
has no qualms about saying the publishers
are to blame for the high cost of textbooks.
"Publishers
will take a book and just move chapters
around, not even change a word, and raise
the price," Kendall said.
Kendall
said she would estimate that publishers
come out with a new edition every two to
three years.
It
is not just publishers who are responsible
for setting the prices that students pay.
The publisher sets the price the bookstore
pays, but they have no control over what
the bookstore charges, said June.
Karen
Anderson, a professor at CSULB, is not sure
that the publishers should be blamed for
the high costs.
"It's
very expensive to create a textbook and
there is a very limited market," Anderson
said.
Sandi
Kirschner, president of Addison Wesley Higher
Education Group, said the data on what students
spend each year on textbooks actually reflects
the efforts of publishers to keep costs
down.
"In
addition to the small, specialized nature
of the college textbook market, the product
itself is more complex to produce,"
Kirschner said. "We invest heavily
in the design, art, illustration and learning
tools that are part of many textbooks today.
And we work to engage the best authors who
are willing to devote years to writing and
refining their work. All of this represents
a substantial investment."
Anderson
says students have many options when it
comes to textbooks and it is partly a matter
of convenience that students purchase their
own textbooks for each class.
"Students
want a book to read on their own time,"
Anderson said, "but students could
save tons of money by creating some kind
of textbook co-op, kind of like a textbook
library, where students can go in and read
the textbook and leave it there. A textbook
could provide for up to four people that
way."
However,
some students do not have time to come to
school to do their reading.
"Between
going to school full-time and working full-time,
I have to take my books everywhere and read
whenever and whereever I get a second,"
student Erin Wheatley said. "There's
no way I could get all my reading done at
school."
Mellani
Lubuag contributed to this report.
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