Jocelyn Rodman
TO: Mr. Benno Schmidt, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of CUNY
FROM: Jocelyn Rodman
DATE: September 17, 2015
RE: The Astronomical Cost of Textbooks in College
Since the 1970s, the rate of college textbook prices has risen astronomically, negatively impacting students’ education, particularly CUNY students. Tyler Kingkade (2013) wrote an article in the Huffington Post and reported that there has been an 812 percent increase in the price of textbooks since 1978. The Economist (2014) reported that, “ indeed, the nominal price of textbooks has risen more than fifteenfold since 1970, three times the rate of inflation.” Ben Popken(2015) wrote on MSNBC that, “According to NBC’s review of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, textbooks prices have risen over three times the rate of inflation from January 1977 to June 2015, a 1.041 percent increase.”
An average student in the United States spends thousands of dollars on textbooks each year. According to Herb Weisbaum’s(2014) article on CNBC, the average student in this country will spend around $1,200 a year just on books and supplies with a single book costing up to $200. Likewise, the National Association of College Stores (NACS) also found that the average student would spend around $655 dollars each year on textbooks. However, with a single textbook that can easily cost, as much as $300 dollars, the total each student spends on just textbooks is much higher than $655 dollars a year. Students are captive consumers, meaning they have no choice but to purchase the textbooks.
However, only students in the United States are held prisoners to the debilitating cost of textbooks. KoustubhPatwardhan (2003) from The Michigan Daily reported that, “ U.S. publishers are selling many college textbooks in countries such as France and the United Kingdom for little more than half the price.”The publishing industries justify the high price of textbooks by claiming that sales would go down if hey did not adjust the U.S. prices to the local markets in countries like France and the United Kingdom (Patwardhan, 2003). This however, does not justify the reason why they should charge the U.S. students the largeamount.
Many students and their families are struggling with the reality of having to spend up to a thousand dollars a year on textbooks. For families that are having trouble paying tuition it is impossible to put up that large sum of money each year on top of the tuition. This results in families having to take out more loans, and working longer hours according to Ethan Senack (2014) of the U.S. PIRG. In particular, because many CUNY families are of low or middle-income status, they, particularly are affected.
The risingprice of textbooks affects the types and numbers of courses students are able to take. A Study by Ethan Senack (2014) from the U.S. PIRGS reported that half of the surveyed college students,in the study,reported that the costs of the textbook impacted the number and selection of classes they took each semester. The high price acts as a handcuff that limits a student’s freedom to take the courses they want and causes the student to be discouraged and less motivated about his or her education. Additionally,those who cannot afford textbooks will fall behind those who can and jeopardizes the students’ opportunities to receive the education they deserve.
The high prices of textbooks can result in a low grade for a student.Ethan Senack (2014) of the U.S. PIRG reported that, “65% of students said that they had decided against buying a textbook because it was too expensive.” In the same study, it was reported that, “ the survey also found that 94% of students who had foregone purchasing a textbook were concerned that doing so would hurt their grades in a course. More than half of the students felt significant concern for their grades.” Many students are aware of the risks of not purchasing the textbooks, but they choose not to purchase them because they simply cannot afford them. Students should be able to focus on their classes and not have to sacrifice their grades and choice of classes.
There are many factors that contribute to students being forced to spend hundreds to thousands on textbooks throughout their academic careers. According to Natsuko Hayashi Nicholls (2009) from University of Michigan, there are two major factors. One factor is the common revision cycle of three to four years of books, which include textbooks. More frequent revisions limit students’ abilities to purchase used books and sell their textbooks back to the bookstore at the end of a term. The constant revision of textbooks, no matter how significant the changes are, forces students to continually purchase textbooks. The second factor contributing to the rising cost of textbook is the additional instructional materials such as software and workbooks that comes with textbooks. Often times, students have no choice but to purchase the entire bundle of textbooks, software, and workbooks.
Thank you Mr. Schmidt for your attention to this matter, which highly impacts the education of CUNY students. I look forward to meeting you and discuss possible solutions.
Reference
Kingkade, Tyler. (2013). College Textbook Prices Increasing Faster Than Tuition And
Inflation. Huffington Post. Retrieved from
Nicholls Hayashi, Natsuko. (2009). The Investigation into the Rising Cost of
Textbooks. University of Michigan Library.Retrieved from
Patwardhan, Koustubh. (2003). Students find cheap textbooks overseas. The Michigan
Daily. Retrieved from
Popken, Ben. (2015). College textbook prices have risen 1,041% since 1977. MSNBC.
Retrieved from
Senack, Ethan. (2014). Fixing The Broken Textbook Market. U.S. PIRG Education
Fund and The Student PIRGs. Retrieved from
Why textbooks cost so much. The Economist. Retrieved from
Weisbaum, Herb. (2014). College textbook costs more outrageous than ever. CNBC.
Retrieved from