College Textbook Price

College textbooks are increasing in price every year. According to the Government Accountability Office, the price of college textbooks has risen three times as fast as inflation (USA Today, 2014). And for students the increasing cost accounts for more than fourteen percent of a four year degree (U.S. News, 2014). The cost of textbooks is forcing students to choose between paying more for an education or not get a passing grade in a class. The escalation of college textbook prices by publishing companies is not something college students should have to pay. First a little about why textbook prices are increasing. Textbook prices continue to rise because publishers have to cover the cost of producing the books and the companies want to make

According to a National Association of College Stores survey, students, in 2007, spent 702 dollars on textbook. In 2009, the students spent 667 dollars, and in 2011, the student spent 655 dollars (Kestenbaum, 2014). The students are spending less even though the price of the textbooks is increasing. There are a few explanations for this reduction in student spending. One is students purchasing book through other avenues. In 2013 the Supreme Court made the decision that American may purchase and sell copyrighted material that had been gotten legally (The Economist, 2014, p. 24). Students are finding other means to get there textbooks instead of paying for them. Finally the students are choosing not to pay for textbooks. According to an article in the U.S. News and World Report (2014) 64% of students are choosing to not purchase textbooks so as not to have to pay the costs of the books (Bidwell, 2014). These students know not purchasing the books will cause their grades will suffer, but they do not pay to save

Online books could be produced at a lower cost. Also companies could realize they are not able to produce as many copies of a book. Finally the publishing companies may have to cut back on how often they publish a new edition of a textbook. With each new addition there may be little to no changes in the information. Republishing a text every two or three years may not need to happen. Maybe a book can be published five or seven years. Some book do need to be republished every two or three years but other books can be published after seven years. Some books are written by the professors that then use the books for their classes. There is nothing wrong with a professor using the book for his or her class. Instead of having the students purchase the books maybe another way for the professors to use the textbook.

Another solution could be open textbooks (Weisbaum, 2014). These are teacher written peer-reviewed online books. The cost is free to the students. Compared with a tradition textbook this could be a positive replacement. The savings to students at University of Wisconsin-Madison, for using open textbooks, could be as much as 6 million dollars per year (Bidwell, 2014). A significant amount of money that could go toward housing, food, or other career related