Understanding unreasonable textbook prices for students
Why are textbooks so expensive?
I know the shock you feel when you pick up a textbook for class and realize it’s going to set you back $200 or $300, just for one book. It seems impossible for a stack of paper to cost so much. The truth is it’s a phenomenon that is getting worse.
One think tank, American Enterprise Institute, found the cost of college textbooks rose 812 percent since 1978, more than three times faster than inflation.
Max Cowan | Argonaut
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Over the same time frame, housing went up just 325 percent and medical services costs increased by only 575 percent. It’s unconscionable to think textbooks could go up in price more than housing or healthcare, two markets whose names are almost synonymous with skyrocketing costs and predatory practices.
If you were to ask a textbook publisher, they would tell you textbooks take years to write, require extensive editing to ensure the material is correct and have to be updated periodically to ensure they are accurate. However, I am not a textbook publisher and I will tell you these are just a bunch of terrible excuses.
Looking past the comparison of textbooks to housing or healthcare, is there any way a textbook publisher can explain this rise in price? What has substantially changed over the past three decades in the process of making textbooks? It seems like the writing, editing and updating isn’t different compared to how it was 30 years ago. There is no justifiable reason for these rising costs.
While textbook publishers created new online resources, which they say helps account for the rising costs in recent years, the real reason the costs seem unreasonable is because they are not based in market economics. In order for the costs of textbooks to be driven by the ordinary economic principles of supply and demand, consumers must have the freedom to make rational economic choices.
Roughly 15 percent of every textbook goes towards marketing. The problem is publishers don’t market to students — they market to professors. They do this because it is the professors who decide which textbooks become required texts, forcing students to buy them. Since professors are not the ones purchasing these texts, many instructors don’t take cost into account.
As long as the demand for textbooks is determined without cost considerations, the prices for textbooks will continue to rise. There are no economic incentives for the publishers to charge a fair price for their textbooks. Students can’t choose cheaper options, encouraging suppliers to raise their prices.
There are cheaper options available. Open source online texts are already accessible, but without the same marketing power as the publishing companies, there are few professors who are aware of these options. Many faculty members value the free exchange of ideas. They recognize education should not be just for the privileged few. Until this principle is applied to the texts we read, we will keep paying exorbitant prices for books.
Max Cowan can be reached at [email protected]