WESTERN SKIES - August 30, 2005

*** RISING PRICE OF TEXTBOOKS ***

ERIC WHITNEY: At the same time college students are heading back to class, Congressional investigators released a report that found the average price of textbooks more than doubled over the past eighteen years. That angers some students and public interest groups, but publishers point to the rising costs of producing classroom materials. Stephen Raher went to the Colorado College Bookstore to find out more.

[sound of cash registers ringing up purchases]

STEPHEN RAHER: As new Colorado College freshmen come to the campus bookstore, they're receiving an education in the cost of textbooks. The General Accounting Office report released two weeks ago found that the average price of textbooks has increased one hundred eighty-six percent in eighteen years, compared to a seventy-two percent increase in the Consumer Price Index. But even the rising cost of textbooks pales in comparison to the two hundred forty percent increase in college tuitions over the same time period.

The report found that the most likely catalyst of growing book prices is supplementary materials such as computer software, special websites, and study aides. Sometimes these materials are packaged with the student's textbook, but often times the bonus content is for the professors, according to Colorado College Bookstore manager Jenny Guy.

JENNY GUY: The student may never see some of the materials through their book purchase. There are things that they'll see in their course that they may not have the hard copies of. It used to be an instructor's edition of the book with maybe the answers in it, but now it's CD's with visual presentations of different aspects of their materials that they use in their courses. But the instructor didn't put that together, the publisher did. And since the publisher did it they have to get money for it somehow, and they get that money by charging the students.

RAHER: These instructor supplements are often part of the price tag whether or not the professor chooses to use them. And according to the GAO, the overall demand for more supplemental material has been driven in part by many public universities' increased use of part-time faculty who are more likely to rely on publisher-prepared content.
One way that college bookstores have typically helped lower costs is through the practice of buying back used books at the end of the semester and reselling them at lower costs. But, according to Jenny Guy, that's also becoming more difficult.

GUY: The other thing that publishers are doing that makes it harder for us as college bookstores, is that they're shortening their cycle-times on new editions. Seven or ten years ago, they may have six or eight years in between new editions, but now they're down to three or four.

RAHER: And when a new edition comes out, all the used copies of the old version become obsolete.

The Association of American Publishers responded to the GAO report by defending the rising prices, saying their costs are growing as well. Moreover, it's not uncommon for a new textbook to lose money in its first year of publication.

College bookstores, which often operate on slim profit margins, also weighed in. The National Association of College Stores submitted written comments to the GAO, pointing out that publishers often sell titles for less money in other countries than in the U.S.

This debate certainly won't result in any price relief for students this semester, including these freshmen who, books in hand, anxiously await their first day of class.

CASHIER: That comes to one thirty-one eighty-nine.

For Western Skies, I'm Stephen Raher.