With
passage of Senate Bill 365, the Oregon Legislature is giving Oregon
students, families and faculty a hand in the effort to make college
textbooks more affordable.
"Students
are struggling with the skyrocketing cost of textbooks," said Laura
Etherton, OSPIRG Advocate. "Today, the Oregon Legislature passed a bill
that can serve as a model for states across the nation."
Under
the bill, publishers will need to be clearer about prices and options.
And they'll have to give faculty the option of only ordering the books
they want students to buy, as opposed to "bundling" textbooks together
with pricey and often unnecessary CDs and workbooks.
Students
have always struggled with the costs of college textbooks, but higher
education and public interest advocates say research has shown the
problem has gotten more serious in recent years.
Textbook
wholesale costs increased four times the rate of inflation between 1994
and 2003, with the average Oregon student spending about $900 each year
on textbooks, according to surveys conducted by OSPIRG and also by the
Oregon Student Association. That's about 20% of tuition and fees at a
four year college, and about 40% of the tuition and fees at a two year
school.
Senate
Bill 365 addresses three of the main drivers of rising prices, frequent
new editions, lack of price disclosure, and bundling. The bill brings
clear disclosure about textbook options and prices to Oregon. Faculty
will have full information about the textbook versions they can choose
from, how much each costs, and how frequently the book has had new
editions published in the past.
In
addition to transparency measures, the bill also addresses the practice
called "bundling". More and more, students and faculty find that
textbooks are only available "bundled," shrink-wrapped together with
additional items such as CDs and workbooks, items that drive up the
cost, and are often unnecessary for the particular course. Senate Bill
365 requires publishers who offer textbooks for sale in "bundles" to
also make them available without the add-on materials. The bill goes
into effect January 1, 2008.
