SREB Finds College Textbook Costs Receiving More Attention From State Leaders as Costs Surpass $1,000 Per Year

The report notes that college textbook prices are rising much faster than the rate of inflation, according to the General Accounting Office. Digital instructional materials may help reduce those costs, the SREB brief adds.

Used textbooks typically cost 25 percent less than new books, the brief says. However, debate continues about whether used textbooks actually lead to overall lower costs for students. The preliminary report of the West Virginia Statewide Task Force on Textbook Affordability says that the sale of used books does not benefit publishers, so they frequently revise textbooks, forcing prices higher.

Several SREB states are taking steps to curb textbook costs. Oklahoma requires bookstores to provide textbook cost information to faculty members and staff, who then must consider the least costly options when requiring materials for courses. Oklahoma and Tennessee require on-campus bookstores to provide un-bundled materials whenever possible — separating textbooks that are often sold with CDs or other related materials that can drive costs higher for students.

Florida and Virginia require faculty members who choose bundled course materials to confirm that all of the included materials will be used for their courses. Six SREB states — Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia — require to varying degrees that students have access to lists of required textbooks distinctive from optional class materials.

Arkansas, Florida, Oklahoma, Virginia and West Virginia have adopted legislation banning faculty and staff from receiving pay from publishers when students select specific textbooks. While no state bars faculty members from receiving royalties from textbooks they have authored, Arkansas requires colleges to restrict how royalties may be used.

Requirements that institutional governing boards adopt policies to minimize textbook costs have been enacted in several SREB states. As of early 2009, legislation mandating board policies to reduce textbook costs had passed in The university systems in Georgia, Maryland and North Carolina mandate specific textbook affordability measures, and several states are studying how to minimize textbook costs.

While digital instructional materials hold much promise for reducing the cost burden on students, there is not yet a clear way forward to their large-scale adoption, the brief says. As states and schools consider using digital instructional material, SREB urges them to consider whether legislative or policy solutions reduce costs in the long term, how colleges can be more directly involving in reducing textbook costs, and how states can help colleges adopt digital instructional materials.

The federal Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 includes provisions to decrease instructional materials costs and make the publishing and selection process for textbooks more transparent. Beginning in July 2010, publishers will be required to provide faculty members and others selecting textbooks with information for each available book, including the price, publishing dates of the three previous editions, a list of revisions made from each previous edition, and the formats in which each textbook is available.

Publishers also will be required to make textbooks that are bundled with supplemental materials available in stand-alone format as well. The new provisions also require colleges and their affiliated bookstores to list information, including prices, for required and recommended textbooks in each course on online course schedules. These measures complement, and in some cases will supersede, textbook legislation and policies enacted in several SREB states.

For more information on this topic in your state, contact SREB Communications.

The Southern Regional Education Board, or SREB, based in Atlanta, was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. More information is available online at www.sreb.org.