High Text Book Costs Double the Cost of a College Education

[paul342160]

I teach at three community college as an Adjunct Professor; but I don't select the textbooks for my courses.

In my specialty, some text books and homework sets can approach $300 to $500 per course.

My students typically pay tuition costs between $350 to $500 per 3 credit course.

Open Source (opensource.org) and other websites offer free textbooks written by professors
at prominent universities and colleges such as Rice University.

In my opinion, government grants should be provided in order to fund the production of
at least three textbooks in each course offered at most colleges (Accounting 1, Biology 1 , Calculus 1, Chemistry 1 ,
Economics 1, English Compostion 1, Government 1, History 1, Political Science 1, Physics 1, Psychology 1, Sociology 1, etc.)

In my opinion, students need to be aware of future job prospects in their majors. A Psychology degree at the Ph.D. level is much more valuable than a Psychology degree at the Bachelor's level. A B.A. degree in Education may provide more financial security in New York State than a similar degree in Florida where many teachers ar underpaid.

 

[PoS]

Textbook costs have been a PITA for decades. When I was in college, I would borrow a course book from the library, because professors were required to stock at least 2 copies there. I spent the money my parents budgeted for these books on beer instead.

In the end its about supply and demand, textbooks written by profs have very little resale value and only the students for their courses buys them, so no mass market appeal whatsoever. The industry is pretty much a vanity press.

My solution? Make these textbooks available as ebooks. Eliminates print costs right there.

 

[ttwtt78640]

I teach at three community college as an Adjunct Professor; but I don't select the textbooks for my courses.

In my specialty, some text books and homework sets can approach $300 to $500 per course.

My students typically pay tuition costs between $350 to $500 per 3 credit course.

Open Source (opensource.org) and other websites offer free textbooks written by professors
at prominent universities and colleges such as Rice University.

In my opinion, government grants should be provided in order to fund the production of
at least three textbooks in each course offered at most colleges (Accounting 1, Biology 1 , Calculus 1, Chemistry 1 ,
Economics 1, English Compostion 1, Government 1, History 1, Political Science 1, Physics 1, Psychology 1, Sociology 1, etc.)

In my opinion, students need to be aware of future job prospects in their majors. A Psychology degree at the Ph.D. level is much more valuable than a Psychology degree at the Bachelor's level. A B.A. degree in Education may provide more financial security in New York State than a similar degree in Florida where many teachers ar underpaid.

What constitutional power allows the federal funding of textbooks?

 

[paul342160]

What constitutional power allows the federal funding of textbooks?

Most academic research is funded through Federal or State grants. Please contact a college near you.

 

[Slartibartfast]

The masters program I am in right now uses a lot of O'Reilly technical books, open source e-books, or material created by the school itself due to the school having a mission to make sure that education is affordable for regular people.

One of the electives has a text book that I can 'rent' for like $200, so I may not be taking that class due to me being annoyed by that.

 

[paul342160]

Textbook costs have been a PITA for decades. When I was in college, I would borrow a course book from the library, because professors were required to stock at least 2 copies there. I spent the money my parents budgeted for these books on beer instead.

In the end its about supply and demand, textbooks written by profs have very little resale value and only the students for their courses buys them, so no mass market appeal whatsoever. The industry is pretty much a vanity press.

My solution? Make these textbooks available as ebooks. Eliminates print costs right there.

PoS, these Open Source type books are ebooks.

 

[ttwtt78640]

Most academic research is funded through Federal or State grants. Please contact a college near you.

That didn’t answer my question. We seem to have reached the point where anything deemed ‘important’ by congress automagically becomes a (new) federal government power.

 

[WorldWatcher]

I teach at three community college as an Adjunct Professor; but I don't select the textbooks for my courses.

In my specialty, some text books and homework sets can approach $300 to $500 per course.

My students typically pay tuition costs between $350 to $500 per 3 credit course.

Open Source (opensource.org) and other websites offer free textbooks written by professors
at prominent universities and colleges such as Rice University.

In my opinion, government grants should be provided in order to fund the production of
at least three textbooks in each course offered at most colleges (Accounting 1, Biology 1 , Calculus 1, Chemistry 1 ,
Economics 1, English Compostion 1, Government 1, History 1, Political Science 1, Physics 1, Psychology 1, Sociology 1, etc.)

In my opinion, students need to be aware of future job prospects in their majors. A Psychology degree at the Ph.D. level is much more valuable than a Psychology degree at the Bachelor's level. A B.A. degree in Education may provide more financial security in New York State than a similar degree in Florida where many teachers ar underpaid.

What constitutional power allows the federal funding of textbooks?

Where did he say federal government?

WW

 

[ttwtt78640]

Where did he say federal government?

WW

See post #4.

 

[WorldWatcher]

See post #4.

You mean the one after your question?

Government != Federal

Sometimes people post incomplete thoughts.

WW

 

[WorldWatcher]

The masters program I am in right now uses a lot of O'Reilly technical books, open source e-books, or material created by the school itself due to the school having a mission to make sure that education is affordable for regular people.

One of the electives has a text book that I can 'rent' for like $200, so I may not be taking that class due to me being annoyed by that.

One of the biggest "problems", IMHO are textbook editions. It's a racket. When I was working on my Master's in the 90's textbooks were expensive, but not THAT expensive.

Fast forward a couple of decades when my kids were going through college and it had gotten ridiculous. One of my main problems was the concept minor updates being considered a "New Edition" and the coursework required the "New Edition".

Were the new editions very much different? Of course not. New editions came out every 3-4 of years expressly to negate the used book market.

WW

 

[PoS]

PoS, these Open Source type books are ebooks.

Thats fine, what I meant to say was all college textbooks should be ebooks.

 

[BirdinHand]

When I was in college, we would “pool” textbook costs amongst a group of us.

I’d buy books for one class, friends would buy books for another…and we would share the books/costs. Even making “illegal” photocopies of material.

And that was in the time before everyone carrying phones that had fancy cameras.

College books are a total scam. Especially when so many of them simply change a few things every couple years and then there are no “used” books available.

 

[GIJane]

What always pissed me off was a Prof REQUIRING the prescribed text book then never using it. Bastards

 

[Superfly]

Wow - they don’t let you choose your own textbooks? All my professors in undergrad and grad school chose their own textbooks, and many of them looked for freebies online for us, or allowed us to use older versions to save us money.

 

[GIJane]

Wow - they don’t let you choose your own textbooks? All my professors in undergrad and grad school chose their own textbooks, and many of them looked for freebies online for us, or allowed us to use older versions to save us money.

Some do (this was in the 90s), but sometimes there just weren't older books available. I'm not complaining about buying a book, I'm complaining about a Prof requiring a book they never used in class.

 

[ralfy]

Some more reasons why they're expensive:

Copyrights - lots of fees to pay for each work (even short ones), illustrations, etc., used in every page, including scholarly apparatus;

Low volumes - leading to higher costs per unit; pressure grows given used book market;

Outdated material - leading to new editions, even if they make up only a percentage of the content; even changes in pagination lead to rewrites; may entail another round of licensing requests for copyrighted materials;

Ancillary content - online, other materials;

Marketing costs - via reviews, etc., and passed on to the price of the products;

Low competition level - few publishers enter the market because demand isn't that high, leading to fewer choices and higher prices;

Meanwhile, the costs for writers might be high and earnings low because publishers have to cover the cost of publication (which goes up if it's not print-on-demand, plus copyrights, distribution, and shipping).