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Summary critique the high cost of college textbooks
Essay on the cost of college textbooks
Summary critique the high cost of college textbooks
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Every semester college students go into the bookstore to buy books that their professors assigned for class. Little do they know those books could run them up to a thousand dollars. Throughout the years bookstores have gone up on their prices tremendously causing many negative outcomes from their buyers. That's why I propose that colleges lower the prices of textbooks to make it affordable for students. After conducting some research I have a better understanding as to why textbooks cost so much and how we shouldn't complain. After all, it takes plenty of money to create books and the company as well the authors have to make money. With everything being said, I believe the prices on textbooks should be lowered to help college students, yet …show more content…
Throughout the years prices have sky rocketed causing many negative things to come out of it. The Government Accountability Office released a study that states, "Between 2002 and 2013, the price of college textbooks rose by 82%" (USAToday). That is a huge difference that students right now are paying for a book that has a possibility of never being used. Not to mention that books are not included in tuition causing students or parents to take out more loans to cover the costs. An article that USA Today published mentions a survey they executed with over two thousand college students across one hundred and fifty campuses. This survey states, "That 65% said they had decided against buying a textbook because it was too expensive. Nearly half (48%) said the cost of books had an impact on how many or which classes they took. And 94% of the students who had skipped buying a required book said they were concerned that doing this would hurt their grade in that course" (USAToday). This numbers on its own shows the negative impact of how textbooks are priced too high. From personal experience, this semester I was required to have a math textbook and a separate book that continued the answers for the odd problems in the main book. When I went to purchase it at the local bookstore the lady working their said I had to buy them in a package and brand new. The two books rang up around two hundred and eighty dollars. I was shocked because of the price but didn't have another choice because my professor wanted me to have them for the next class. However, a week later a friend's brother sold me both books for two hundred dollars and they were brand new as well because he never used them. I took the books back to the book store and saved myself some money. What made it worse was that my professor mentioned in class that for the new semester they were changing
The practice of the censorship of books in schools has been prevalent due to the explicit content of them. Parents have been complaining to schools about books that count as required reading because they disapprove with the points made in the book. If a book consists of offensive or sexually explicit material, then parents would challenge the schools about them in order to prevent their children from reading them. Censorship in general has been an intensely debated issue because it is considered an infringement to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution while others argue it is used to conceal inappropriate things (Aliprandini and Sprague). The banning of books in school curriculum has also been debated since parents see certain books as inappropriate while others argue that banning them hinders student learning. Against the censorship of books in schools, Fenice Boyd and Nancy Bailey, authors of Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, believe that banning books creates a barrier between students and intellectual development (Boyd and Bailey, 655). Banning books from schools and removing them from the curriculum prevents students from exploring different ideas and developing creativity and critical thinking skills.
491). The inflated prices of textbooks contribute to the used textbook industry because the bookstores get nearly double the price of the author. If the bookstores don’t sell the copies, they send the left over books back to the company and get a full refund. The bookstores have nothing to lose and they are making a substantial amount of money because of the resale value. I agree that textbooks are overpriced because of the claim Roediger makes when stating that textbook prices are too high for students to afford. The bookstore has nothing to lose because they do not lose any money if the books are not sold, while the students are suffering. The bookstore loses no money if students don’t purchase the book because if there is a large number of books left over, the bookstore sends them back. Roediger says “If books are not sold, they are retuned to the company for a full price refund. It’s a no-risk business” (Roediger, pg. 492). He recognizes that this textbook company is a no risk business and the side benefitting from this company is the one making all the money; the textbook companies are constantly winning. On the other end of things though, students need their textbooks to learn and have to pay the price listed for each textbook. An average full time college student enrolls in 15 credit hours which balances out to taking around five classes per
In a recent study that was conducted the rate of individuals attending college has increased. This increase in students comes at a time when the country has been described as being in a recession. With job losses, companies closing and lack of job availability many people are returning to school. This return to the classroom comes at a cost. The rate of college tuition has risen in the last few years. In my home state of Kentucky, it appears both of the major Universities have asked to raise tuition every other year. When college cost rise so does the tools needed to attend college. One of the most expensive tools is books. Last year I enrolled my son in college when calculating the books for his classes, we soon learned that the cost of his books and the cost of my books were almost on month’s salary. My family soon learned if we were going to be able to not only attend college but have the necessary tools needed, we would have to consider alternatives to buying books. I did some research and soon discovered that technology had again come to the rescue. I found a company called Chegg that is an online book rental company. This company provides students with an alternative to buying books by renting them for a portion of the price. According to their article in CrunchBase named “Chegg edit” the company began at Iowa University in 2005 as a “hyper-local” classified directory. It was not until 2007 that the company introduced their textbook rental service. When looking at the company from an Information Systems standpoint I would say it ranks up there with the creative ideas of the century. You go online type in your order and it is processed within a matter of days. During the next portion of this paper we will loo...
Countries worldwide actively call for the banning of books that are found to be politically inconvenient, religiously awkward, or embarrassing in one form or another. But for writers like Russia's Vasily Grossman, a book's ban means far more than just a dip in sales. In 1961, he pleaded with the Soviet censors, "I am physically free, but the book to which I have dedicated my life is in jail." (Merkelson). A book represents an idea, thus limiting access to a book is banning the representation of an idea. The banning of books in American schools should not be allowed, because banning books will prevent students from learning the reason for the controversy and alternate viewpoints they can come to on their own.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a modern day tale of justice, prejudice and morality. The main character of To Kill a Mockingbird is Atticus Finch. Atticus Finch’s character represents reason, morality, and justice in this tale. The story, told from Scout Finch’s point of view, is set in Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. The story tells of Atticus Finch’s woes, worries, and challenges faced in defending Tom Robinson, a black man, accused of raping a white woman. In the heat of the moment Atticus retains a cool and reasonable head, and he never backs down. These are admirable traits that most people strive to be known for. These very noble traits, are shared between Misha Collins and Atticus Finch; which may cause Misha Collins to be dubbed
School boards and teachers have a responsibility for protecting the minds of their students and covering age appropriate material. However, does this responsibility cover the extreme act of banning books from school classrooms? Does not the teacher have a duty to introduce to their students world issues in order to better the students ability to cope with problems in the world? How does a school decide which books should be banned from the classroom, and should it be left up to the teacher to decide what is decided in his/her classroom. By banning books from the classroom, we prevent our students from learning about controversial topics in a safe environment, and we also encroach upon the student’s freedom of reading what they want in school.
In order to best understand why implementing such a loan program would be most beneficial to the students one must understand why textbook prices have spiraled out of control. The problem lies with textbook pub...
College isn’t all about bookwork. College is a place to have and experience new things. If a ceiling was set on tuition there would be almost no money to fund extracurricular activities such athletic and cultural facilities and other programs. Also colleges would not be able to pay for extensive libraries and new technology for students without tuition.
In conclusion, America provides many ways to help reduce the cost of college textbooks but society is still not satisfied with the outcome. The Open Textbook, Affordable Textbook Act, and book store rentals are wonderful programs, but has its disadvantages that hopefully would be resolved in the 2016 presidential elections. The statistics show that many students across the nation benefit from learning with quality of teaching, the amount of accessibility it provides without having to worry about paying off student loans. School administrations should consider about transferring to an act that would benefit both the school and the students, but also provide more equality to the publishers and students.
Textbooks are a must in almost every university. On top of tuition, dining and housing fees, high cost of textbooks is a huge burden on the students. Every student wants to buy the textbooks for their class as the books are the best source for their study, but the main barrier is the high price of the books. According to NBC's review of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, textbook prices have risen over three times the rate of inflation from January 1977 to June 2015, a 1,041 percent increase(Popken).
With technology progressing from drones fulfilling shipments to electronic books becoming cheaper, major companies such as Apple and Amazon have had a big impact on not only the tech industry but the publishing industry as well. Companies are outputting resources like IBook’s and the Kindle bookstore to take full advantage of the transition to digital publishing. As a result of this we have greener, more budget friendly books, and outdated traditional copies of text. With the introduction to these resources it is making the lives of students and the mass market more convenient. Students are now able to purchase books on one device that won’t weigh their bags down on a daily basis. Companies have created bookstores that can be accessed from devices that we use every day, resulting in paperless copies of books that are substantially cheaper than the traditional hard copy. E-books are replacing physical books and textbooks rapidly, and as a result they are becoming more widely and readily available for students.
Textbooks are reliable, they can be used by anyone, and there are enough textbooks for each student to have their own, and be able to take them home. Also, technology is impacting the way the brain receives information. Reading digital print isn't as productive for readers as printed text, and there is limited access to resources needed for tablets to be effective when used by students. While this is true there are benefits to using tablets and other forms of technology in the classroom. It is easier for teachers to have assignments emailed directly to them, or post assignments on the internet, the use of technology is required in many core classes, and textbooks are easily worn, and expensive.
First of all, buying an e-book is cheaper than a printed book. As a student who is studying in college, I know students have to buy text books for all the classes. According to an article from website, “average price of best-selling e-books is $5-$11, and most text-books’ price is around $200 which are selling in bookstore even rental books should cost 50% of the new books’ price.” We can immediately know that e-books are much cheaper than printed
Books cost a lot of money to print with all the ink and paper. You can also rip and break a textbook easier than a computer. Imagine every student uses around 100 pieces of paper a month and then you add up all the months in a school year and then add up all the ink for pens and all the paper the teachers also use, well, it can cost almost $10,000. Every school could use that money for other things their school really needs. A computer doesn't use a lot of paper, notebooks or ink.
...ercharged. Unfortunately, many students, including myself, feel overcharged in the beginning of semester after paying more than five hundred dollars for books from the college store. Of course, some students do not really care about how much money they spend for books. However, the over students can not effort buying expensive books, because they try to save some money to pay for tuition.