Student governments rally for cheaper textbooks
aaron hedge
Issue date: 2/8/08 Section: News
Student governments from colleges across Colorado teamed up at the capital Thursday to lobby state lawmakers to pass legislation to inject transparency into the textbook industry, which some student activists call a "broken market."
The bill passed the Senate committee after the rally and is now the Senate House.
The session, led by Blake Gibson, chair of the Associated Students of Colorado, filled the room to the point of overflow.
The state's Senate Chambers heard the voice of students, including Gibson, who showed up borrowed suits to tell lawmakers students are being "bankrupted" by the publishing industry.
Drafted by Gibson, the measure follows similar legislation that has been implemented in other states like Washington.
The bill would address three issues with the textbook industry that Gibson says have driven the price of textbooks up at four times the rate of inflation for the last two decades.
First, reports by student organizations show that textbook publishers rarely disclose price to teachers voluntarily when they are ordering their textbooks.
And only 38 percent of teachers polled in a report by a Massachusetts student organization said publishers always told them the price of a work when asked.
Second, when teachers order course material, a large amount of it is bundled -- many books come with supplemental materials, like instructional CDs and additional texts that may not be required for the course. The supplemental material adds to the price, Gibson said.
Third, he said, subsequent editions of textbooks often have minimal amounts of new information that its preceding text didn't have.
"We don't need new diagrams of things we already know exist," Gibson said. "Gravity hasn't changed in a while, so maybe we don't need the new version."
The legislation -- that Gibson said the federal government is modeling its own bill after -- would require publishers to disclose prices with teachers in the initial sales discussion, offer unbundling options and let teachers know in detail how new editions are different.
The bill passed the Senate committee after the rally and is now the Senate House.
The session, led by Blake Gibson, chair of the Associated Students of Colorado, filled the room to the point of overflow.
The state's Senate Chambers heard the voice of students, including Gibson, who showed up borrowed suits to tell lawmakers students are being "bankrupted" by the publishing industry.
Drafted by Gibson, the measure follows similar legislation that has been implemented in other states like Washington.
The bill would address three issues with the textbook industry that Gibson says have driven the price of textbooks up at four times the rate of inflation for the last two decades.
First, reports by student organizations show that textbook publishers rarely disclose price to teachers voluntarily when they are ordering their textbooks.
And only 38 percent of teachers polled in a report by a Massachusetts student organization said publishers always told them the price of a work when asked.
Second, when teachers order course material, a large amount of it is bundled -- many books come with supplemental materials, like instructional CDs and additional texts that may not be required for the course. The supplemental material adds to the price, Gibson said.
Third, he said, subsequent editions of textbooks often have minimal amounts of new information that its preceding text didn't have.
"We don't need new diagrams of things we already know exist," Gibson said. "Gravity hasn't changed in a while, so maybe we don't need the new version."
The legislation -- that Gibson said the federal government is modeling its own bill after -- would require publishers to disclose prices with teachers in the initial sales discussion, offer unbundling options and let teachers know in detail how new editions are different.
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