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That Book Costs How Much?
New York Times ^ | 04/25/2008 | editorial

Posted on 04/26/2008 8:36:08 AM PDT by iowamark

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I have long thought that the textbook scam is an outrage.
1 posted on 04/26/2008 8:36:08 AM PDT by iowamark
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To: iowamark

ridiculously overpriced text books.


2 posted on 04/26/2008 8:39:13 AM PDT by television is just wrong
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To: iowamark

Not a bigger than scam than Social Security. Congress should worry about *their* scams before worrying about others.


3 posted on 04/26/2008 8:39:51 AM PDT by Perdogg (Four years of Carter gave us 29 years of Iran; What will Hilabama give us?)
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To: iowamark

Congress needs to tie this mandate in with the grants these colleges apply for. It CAN be that easy.

but I suppose the publishers have to recoup the losses on books like Cindy Sheehans that only sold 2 copies.


4 posted on 04/26/2008 8:40:08 AM PDT by chardonnay ( www.ballbusters.org)
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To: iowamark
College students and their families are rightly outraged about the bankrupting costs of textbooks that have nearly tripled since the 1980s, mainly because of marginally useful CD-ROMs and other supplements.

Prices haven't tripled because they included a 25 cent CD. Prices tripled because you are a captive market.

5 posted on 04/26/2008 8:40:22 AM PDT by CGTRWK
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To: iowamark
Even more important, it would require publishers to reveal book prices in marketing material so that professors could choose less-expensive titles.

LOL! The books are often written by the professors who change the books every couple years to foil used book sales. The NYTimes and the U.S. Congress are clueless.

6 posted on 04/26/2008 8:40:41 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (It takes a father to raise a child.)
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To: iowamark

Amen to that.


7 posted on 04/26/2008 8:41:36 AM PDT by sweet_diane ("They hate us cause they ain't us." RTR! ~runs with scissors~ of the Rush tribe)
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To: iowamark

bookmark for later


8 posted on 04/26/2008 8:44:34 AM PDT by IrishCatholic (No local communist or socialist party chapter? Join the Democrats, it's the same thing.)
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To: iowamark

Having actually collaborated on a textbook, (technical material, not that soft liberal arts crap) I can understand much of the cost of the final product. The amount of research and fact checking, technical expertise and sheer time involved in getting it out the door is tremendous. Compared to mass market books, textbooks are small potatoes in terms of sales, and the publishers have to be able to make it worthwhile for the SME to be involved.

Having said that, I noticed that the same book that retailed for $98 in the college bookstores could be had for $59 through Amazon or B&N online. That doesn’t help pay the royalties, but it does get the book to the students a little more cheaply.


9 posted on 04/26/2008 8:45:07 AM PDT by SlowBoat407 (It's a fine line between Guardian Angel and Stalker.)
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To: Jeff Chandler

That’s the kicker. You can’t even sell them back or sell them on ebay because they make minor changes and change the “edition” every couple years. A lot of these books are in their 8th or 9th edition, with little changed.

Occasionally, my kid has had a prof who said, get any edition of the book, so then the students can go on ebay and buy a really cheap previous edition.


10 posted on 04/26/2008 8:45:27 AM PDT by dawn53
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To: iowamark

As a former college teacher I can comfortably say that textbooks are ONE of the biggest rip-offs in higher education.

Furthermore, few students actually open them.


11 posted on 04/26/2008 8:47:23 AM PDT by Wneighbor
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To: dawn53

A lot of professors pad their salaries by writing a “book”, which is their lesson plan, getting it published, then requiring the students to use it. The book that would cost $5-10 at the copy shop now costs $110, with the professor making a nice profit.

No BS, actually seen it at the local universities.


12 posted on 04/26/2008 8:47:32 AM PDT by rstrahan
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To: Jeff Chandler

San Diego State had rules in the 1980’s requiring no profit could be made if the book was required for the class and by written by the professor. Many books written by the professors had paper back version printed at the university for about one fourth the price of other books.


13 posted on 04/26/2008 8:50:29 AM PDT by ThomasThomas (The night ThomasThomas wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another ....")
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To: iowamark

A big part of the price could be reduced by publishing the entire book on a DVD disc.


14 posted on 04/26/2008 8:51:01 AM PDT by 386wt (Be free and don't die!)
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To: CGTRWK

Yep. And the publishers have a deal with the colleges to print a new book every year or every other year obsoleting the previous years text book when the only thing that has changed is maybe the order of the illustrations.

I’ve got two history of art books from three years that are identical in text, only thing that changed was the location of the pictures in the text.


15 posted on 04/26/2008 8:51:07 AM PDT by Domandred (McCain's 'R' is a typo that has never been corrected)
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To: iowamark
The article makes no mention of the fact that the college bookstore is a major profit center for the college itself. It's a "cash cow" if you will, for the school.

In the same way that medical insurance promotes high medical costs, student loans, grants and scholarships keep educational costs high.
As things stand now, there is no incentive to offer cheap text books.
16 posted on 04/26/2008 8:51:35 AM PDT by AndrewB
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To: television is just wrong

Want lower prices? Simply reduce the subsidy provided by the government. Nothing ever costs less than the amount it is subsidized for. This will allow the market to provide the book, that offers the best bang for the buck.


17 posted on 04/26/2008 8:52:13 AM PDT by Mark was here (The earth is bipolar.)
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To: iowamark

e-books like Amazon.com


18 posted on 04/26/2008 8:52:47 AM PDT by griswold3 (Al queda is guilty of hirabah (war against society) Penalty is death.)
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To: iowamark

Besides paying tuition, the best feature of my ROTC scholarship was it paid for books. Plus, I had a job after I graduated.


19 posted on 04/26/2008 8:55:30 AM PDT by neodad (USS Vincennes (CG 49) "Checkmate Cruiser")
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To: iowamark
College students and their families are rightly outraged about the bankrupting costs of textbooks that have nearly tripled since the 1980s, mainly because of ers back to intro economics, which they have evidently forgotten.

The primary reason textbooks are expensive is not "marginally useful CD-ROMs and other supplements," but simply that students will pay these prices. Why will students pay them? Because they are critical to succeeding in so many classes. Why are they critical to succeeding in so many classes? Because professors build their classes around textbooks. Why do professors build their classes around textbooks? Because publishers make life easy for them by writing canned exams, study guides, web supplements to (even replacements of) traditional lectures, etc. Professors, in turn, have little incentive to care what their students pay, and so publishers can get away with all of this. Publishers also use the new-edition tactic to gut the used-textbook market, which would otherwise eat a lot into sales.

I teach 5 classes on a regular basis. In one I use no text at all, in two others I use standard textbooks but make them optional, and in the other two I have mandatory books, but books which are not traditional textbooks but mass-market books by Thomas Sowell that are a lot cheaper but do not have "problem sets," web supplements, etc. But that requires that I create and grade my own tests, not lean on the publishers' add-ons as busywork for students, and otherwise actually aggressively teach my classes. It is old-fashioned, but students appreciate it. There is some justification for the traditional textbook model in some science and language classes, where repetitive problem-solving and/or drills are important, but the fault otherwise lies with professors who don't want to do the work of teaching.

20 posted on 04/26/2008 8:55:46 AM PDT by untenured
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