At the University of Maryland at College Park the average student spends more than $1,000 a year on textbooks, about 13 percent of in-state tuition and half of tuition at an average community college. Textbook prices have increased at four times the rate of inflation since 1994 and continue to rise.
The rising costs of textbooks is not inevitable, and Maryland PIRG is working to pass policies to make textbooks part of an affordable college education.
No More Driving Up Prices
Publishers produce new editions of textbooks every 3.5 years—even in fields where information hasn’t changed significantly, like math and chemistry. New editions prevent faculty and bookstores from re-using the old edition. Publishers also “bundle” lots of extras with their textbooks—CD-ROMs and workbooks that drive up prices and make books harder to resell.
Maryland PIRG’s state director, Johanna Neumann, testified at a General Assembly hearing on textbook prices on Jan. 10 and our advocacy was mentioned in an editorial in the Washington Post.
Maryland PIRG is also working with other state PIRGs to require publishers to curb practices that drive up the cost of a college education by passing meaningful federal legislation by the 2008 elections.
