Broken Textbook Cost

1408 Words3 Pages

Vanessa Vazquez
Professor Woods
EH 102-1FB
10 February 2017
The Price of Knowledge in the United States Attending college and taking out one or more student loans is so common amongst American college students that if you do not take out a loan, you are immediately seen differently. Students will either then be seen as privileged or thought of as Albert Einstein. Although there are other reasons for a student not having to take out a loan, these are the two most thought of. So, why has it become so normal for a college student to take out one or more loans? One word comes to mind when attempting to answer this question – tuition – but one can fail to consider a smaller culprit – textbooks. The costs of textbooks have increased by eighty-two …show more content…

A PIRG report, "Fixing the Broken Textbook Market," which surveyed 2,000 students from over 150 campuses, concluded that 65 percent of students did not purchase a textbook because of its cost. While 48 percent admitted that they limited themselves to the amount of courses they could take because of textbook prices (Weisbaum). The cost of textbooks is so grand that it is preventing students from registering for more courses. In result, some students are graduating later than expected. This adds to the students’ stress which is already high because of other factors. Overpriced textbooks are an issue that needs to be addressed more seriously and strived to fix. After all, the price of textbooks in the United States are double that of what they are in oversea …show more content…

Tamar Lewin, a writer for The New York Times, found that “At one prestigious university, a sophomore imported 30 biology books from England .. and sold them outside his classroom for less than the campus-bookstore price, netting a $1,200 profit” (Lewin). This report was taken in 2003 and if this does not accurately depict how long this issue continues to be un-precedent, what will? Two juniors at Williams College found that the price of a $100 dollar textbook sold in the United States could be shipped over from another country for only $50 (Lewin). They were doing what almost every college student does now, surfing the web in search of cheaper textbooks. Recent studies have shown that more and more students are beginning to shop on Amazon.co.uk instead of just Amazon.com because the foreign prices are so much cheaper (Lewin). Purchasing textbooks overseas is more affordable and easier to do now than it was in years past. This is because of copyright laws that use to prevent Americans from legally purchasing textbooks from other countries. Since the Supreme Court made a decision to allow these purchases to be made, transactions are being made by many American students. Too much surprise, the National Association of College Stores has actually taken steps in times past to reach out to leading publishers asking them to stop this pattern of overpriced textbooks. Even a

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