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SoCalMom
Member
| Joined: | Fri May 16th, 2008 |
| Location: | California USA |
| Posts: | 47 |
| Mana: |  |
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Posted: Tue Jul 15th, 2008 04:50 pm |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121565135185141235.html?mod=2_1559_topbox
As Textbooks Go 'Custom,' Students Pay
Colleges Receive Royalties
For School-Specific Editions;
Barrier to Secondhand Sales
Check out this Wall Street Journal article on the latest rip off (or shall we call it a hidden revenue center for colleges) ... The first example given for the U of Alabama is especially egregious.
A few exceprts from the article:
In 2005, a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office criticized several textbook industry practices -- including frequent new editions and the "bundling" of books with extras like CDs and workbooks -- that discourage the purchase of used books and inflate prices for students.
The agency found that college students spend an average of about $900 a year on textbooks. That's the equivalent of 8% of tuition and fees at the average private four-year college, 26% at a state university and 72% at a community college.
The book-royalty arrangements resemble a practice exposed during last year's student-loan scandal, when some universities steered students to particular lending firms and received a secret cut of the loans. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo called those payments "kickbacks" and forced universities, many of which said they used the money to fund scholarships, to halt the practice. Mr. Cuomo recently launched a broad conflict-of-interest investigation of the relationship between colleges and vendors, including book publishers.
This is one big Ka-Ching on the pocketbook.
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Lupine
Member
| Joined: | Thu May 17th, 2007 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 142 |
| Mana: |   |
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Posted: Tue Jul 15th, 2008 06:37 pm |
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Boy, that really ticks me off.
What a ripoff. The whole college textbook scene has already taken on many of the aspects of our healthcare system -- just as doctors often don't know the cost of the drugs they prescribe, too many faculty members apparently don't know how much the required books cost for their classes. Now some of the schools are creating customized versions that allow them to receive royalties and make it virtually impossible for the kids to sell the books back.
This is going to be one of those areas, like student loans, where a bit of sunshine is going to do wonders. A congressional investigation wouldn't hurt either.
I still remember buying "required" books for classes I took in college that the professor NEVER ended up assigning, and I remember eating way too much tuna fish and Top Ramen in order to buy them.
Can you tell that I'm still annoyed?
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WestrnMom
Super Moderator
| Joined: | Fri May 26th, 2006 |
| Location: | West Coast, USA |
| Posts: | 1213 |
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Posted: Wed Jul 16th, 2008 02:16 am |
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Even worse, they are bringing out new editions of textbooks so often that there is no longer a sell-back market for used books, nor can they buy used texts to use the following year. Students who rely on audio books are out of luck because it can take 6 months or more after publication for the books to be made available on disc or computer for blind or dyslexic students.
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