Renting May Be Solution to High Cost of College Textbooks

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:51:00 GMT

Hoping to reduce the premium prices college students pay for textbooks, which on average cost students $900 a year, some colleges and universities are opting to let their students rent their books rather than buy them.

For the first time, six schools in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System are allowing students to rent selected textbooks, according to a Minnesota Public Radio report (“College Textbook Rental Coming to Minnesota,” June 20, 2008).

"Each semester I pay anywhere from $300 to $600 on books, so renting them would probably save me quite a bit,” University of Minnesota student Sonya Sturgis said.

The Minnesota schools are following the model of online book rental sites like Chegg.com and Bookrenter.com, which have offered students an alternative to buying their textbooks for years.

The sites claim that book rental programs could save students 75 percent or more on new and used textbooks, which would allow students to use less of their financial aid and student loans for books and free up more of those funds for tuition and other education-related expenses.

Propelled by studies that show the prices of textbooks are rising faster than the rate of inflation, Congress proposed legislation in February that would require publishers to make unbundled and less expensive versions of textbooks available to students and would require publishers to disclose retail prices and a history of textbook revisions from edition to edition when presenting any new materials to faculty.

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New Legislation May Help Rein in Costs of College Textbooks

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 09 May 2007 20:16:00 GMT

How many times have you bought that brand new updated edition textbook (no used editions available), swallowing the exorbitant cost, only to lose most of what you paid when you re-sold it for pennies at the end of the semester? Or worse yet, what about your “smart decision” to buy that expensive biology textbook USED, intending to sell it back at the end of the semester like the campus bookstore told you you could, only to find a new edition was released and you were stuck with a worthless book?

According to a May 7, 2007 article by Elia Powers titled “Tracking Down Textbook Data” that appeared in Inside Higher Ed, “Legislation intended to make textbook pricing and edition-change information accessible to the college faculty who order the material continues to move through state legislatures across the country.”

You Paid $200 for What?

The main idea here is that professors finally seem to be listening to the laments of their students who have complained about the outrageous costs of textbooks, to the extent that several states across the country are looking to implement legislation to that effect, as reported in the article.

What I did not know was that professors truly are not aware of the prices that students are paying, as they get the books through the college at a reduced cost, as the article stated. “‘The real crux is that faculty are rarely told how much it’s going to cost students. We want more disclosure,’ said Graeme Allen, director of university and government relations at the Minnesota State University Student Association, one of two student advocacy groups pushing the legislation,” according to the article.

Minnesota Leads Way

In order to promote disclosure of textbook costs and planned new editions, the state of Minnesota is pushing legislation that eventually may become the model for national laws addressing the key issue of textbook costs, as stated in the article:

“After a good deal of wrangling over language and provisions in the bill, a higher education conference committee of both House and Senate lawmakers adopted final language last week (it must still be passed by the full House and Senate, and signed by the governor). The ‘Textbook Disclosure, Pricing and Access Act’ says that starting in 2009, any publisher that sells or distributes course material for use in a Minnesota institution must make readily available to faculty, bookstores and institutions:

“The title, edition, author and ISBN
The undiscounted price at which the course materials are available to the bookstore
Formats, including bundled or unbundled, in which those materials are offered and the
undiscounted prices of the components, both sold separately or packaged together
Summary of revisions between current and previous editions
The return policy for course material, including penalties”

While the legislation has yet to become law, it seems that this is a great start to ease a critical college cost for students attending school in the state of Minnesota. However, since the legislation will not be put into play until 2009 in that state (if it passes), it appears that textbook legislation on a national basis may be a long way off.

Talk to the education financial advisors at NextStudent. They have all the information and advice you need on student loans. Check out www.nextstudent.com.

Be sure to tune in next Tuesday for my next blog about this week in student loans.

Student Loan Girl

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Student Loan Blog : Textbook Disclosure

Renting May Be Solution to High Cost of College Textbooks

New Legislation May Help Rein in Costs of College Textbooks