Ka Leo O Hawaii

Issue date: 1/14/08 Section: Commentary

Media Credit: Meghan Lopez The average student spends over $450 on textbooks each semester.

Jennifer Watanabe didn't know they'd be this bad. Like most other incoming freshmen, she'd heard about the soaring cost of college tuition and had applied for numerous scholarships to offset the expense. Since she'd be living with her parents, she wouldn't have to worry about paying for housing or transportation. Instead, her only out-of-pocket charges would be textbooks, and they couldn't be that expensive, could they?

"I can't believe how exorbitant these prices are," Watanabe said, after spending an entire month's salary on several tattered tomes. "I'm going to have to get another job just to pay for my books."

Unfortunately, things don't seem to be looking up (or, for that matter, coming down) for Watanabe or her classmates. In fact, textbook prices have skyrocketed so high in recent years that the investigative arm of the federal Legislature, the Government Accountability Office, was asked by Congress to look into the problem.

Since almost half of college students nationwide receive federal financial aid to fund their education, the office was more than willing to oblige their congressional masters, and the results of their study were striking.

The Government Accountability Office's report, released in 2005, found that the average college student spends nearly $900 on textbooks and supplies each year, or roughly 25 percent of tuition and fees at a standard four-year public university. At two-year colleges, including technical schools and community colleges, the charge for textbooks amounts to 72 percent of a student's bill for tuition and fees.

Furthermore, the office concluded that the cost of textbooks has increased by 186 percent since 1986, or 114 percent more than the overall inflation rate for the same period, which stood at 72 percent.

Why have prices risen so rabidly? And what's being done to prevent further gouging by greedy publishing houses? The answer to the first of these questions is actually rather complicated, and clouded by corporate spin. The answer to the second, however, is quite simple: not much.

In part, the increased valuation of college textbooks can be tied to advancements in educational technology. Frequently, both new and used textbooks are bundled together with instructional supplements that are supposed to make the learning process more accessible to students and professors alike.

Continued...

Page 1 of 3 next >

Article Tools