Textbook burdens
Posted: September 10, 2009 at 6:18 a.m.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Textbooks are the prescription drugs of academia. They're just as indispensable as drugs to those who need them, just as unaffordable to many, just as irrationally priced, depending on where you live. Like some drugs that sell in Canada for half their cost in the United States or a tenth of their cost in India, the same science or math textbooks can be many times cheaper in Canada or India than they are in the United States.
For publishers, students in the United States are cash cows. College textbooks alone are a $7 billion-a-year industry. : Textbook prices have risenmore than 200 percent, or at three times the rate of inflation. :
Florida has one of the nation's largest college and university systems in the country.
It can demand lower prices from publishers for books used in public colleges and universities. It should require publishers to make electronic alternatives available. A textbook should be available on CDROM, for example, or online, at a lower price than a hardcover edition. : An electronic version is immediately updated - and wastes no paper.
- The News-Journal (Daytona Beach, Fla.)
Opinion, Pages 4 on 09/10/2009
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