Overview

As higher education costs continue to skyrocket for American students and families, the price of college textbooks represents a serious part of the affordability equation. The average student will spend nearly $900 each year purchasing textbooks, nearly half of the tuition and fees of two-year public colleges and a fifth of the amount that in-state students would pay for
tuition and fees at four-year public colleges this year.

The problem is made worse because textbook publishers use a variety of tactics to inflate the cost of textbooks. In addition, textbook publishers increase textbook prices faster than the rate of inflation between editions and charge American students more for the same books than students in other countries.

In February 2007, the state PIRGs released “Exposing the Textbooks Industry: How Publishers Pricing Tactics Drive Up The Cost of College Textbooks” a report documenting the way publishers’ unfair business practices drive high book prices and rapid price escalation.