Students who have registered for the Spring 2005 semester have undoubtedly faced problems resulting from heightened unit prices, but there is a bigger issue lurking in the background, waiting to take them by surprise. The Skyline View believes textbook prices are needlessly out of control, hampering the educational process and forcing Skyline pupils to re-examine their budgets. What can we do to alleviate the suffering of these already closed-walleted individuals?
Despite recent fee hikes, a community college education in California is noticeably less expensive than in many other states. Fortunately, this means greater access to a college education for all Californians. Yet, book prices greatly hinder that access. Every semester, students are forced out of needed classes, not because they cannot afford the units, but because the cost of the required texts is disproportionately overblown. This means they must wait another semester to take required transfer classes while they save for books, trapping them in the community college system for yet another year. Community colleges like Skyline should be a gateway to bigger and better schools for all students, not a trap in which to catch and keep less affluent students.
As it is now, publishers such as Prentice Hall and McGraw-Hill are practicing several seemingly shady techniques that corner students into paying more money than they should have to for resources they may never even use.
The practice of “bundling” has become common. Publishers sell textbooks shrink-wrapped with CD-ROMs or other books. However, many teachers do not require companion CD-ROMs, and they end up being no better than shiny drink coasters.
CD-ROMs are not the only extra media that is bundled. For example, one speech communication class textbook sold in the campus bookstore comes bundled with, among other things, a smaller book called a topic finder. The topic finder is a slickly published collection of random words, some of which you may be inspired to write a speech about.
Instead of wasting time, paper and funds on publishing relatively worthless extra materials, publishers could redirect the money so that the prices are kept down. Some students may want extra resources like the topic finder. Therefore, they should be for sale-separately. As it is now, students are force fed these useless extras as they cough up extra cash for the whole bundle.
Some textbooks come bundled with workbooks, and the students cannot be sell them back to the bookstore after writing in them. This effectively kills the market for used books. Many rely on selling used books back to the bookstore at the end of the semester to provide the funds for the following semester. Instead, students are left penniless with a book for which they have no use.
In addition, updated versions of textbooks are being created at an astonishing rate. In some cases, new editions are released every year, rendering the previous edition worthless. When students try to sell the exorbitantly expensive edition (which was “new” just months prior) back to the bookstore, they find that it cannot be sold back. It is common scenarios like this that have forced many students to turn to the Internet.
Use of the Internet has the power to change things. For example, ScrewBookPrices.com was started by a 26-year-old entrepreneur from San Jose who was frustrated by the high prices of his textbooks. The website connects students from various Bay Area campuses who want to sell or buy books. It works in a classified ad-type way.
There are other used book websites that operate in similar ways, most common of which is eBay. Students would have to plan ahead, making purchases in time to receive the books in the mail by the beginning of their classes. However, a little planning can go a long way. If students are fed up with new book prices, they should find ways to buy used, effectively boycotting the overpriced publishers.
Publishers have been having their way with students for years, and it’s time to put a stop to their monopoly on education. If more students used online services instead of paying unnecessarily high prices for bundles of new books, not only would they save precious money, they could also have the power to effect change in the tyrannical textbook selling industry.