Congress to review textbook legislation

Media Credit: KELLY BARRETT / THE EAGLE COOLING COSTS - Students at AU and other colleges nationwide could benefit from new legislation that would lower the costs of textbooks by unbundling materials like CDs and other extra materials.

The House of Representatives will vote today on legislation that aims to curtail the rising costs of textbooks at colleges nationwide, according to Rachel Racusen, a spokeswoman for the House Education and Labor Committee.

The legislation may have a positive impact on students and college bookstores, Cliff Ewert, vice president of media relations at Follett Corporation, the AU Campus Store's supplier, said in an e-mail. This will be especially noticeable when stores "unbundle" products like CDs or materials that raise the overall cost of the textbook, he said, allowing students to potentially sell their books back at 50 percent of the purchase price.

"Students will receive more money for their books, and the bookstore will have the opportunity to buy back more books," Ewert said.

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., introduced the College Opportunity and Affordability Act in November. The bill would serve as a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, the principal law that governs federal student aid.

Tim Beck, a graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences, said he would prefer that financial aid be awarded to students who cannot afford expensive textbooks.

"The bottom line is there needs to be a change," Beck said. "Books are too expensive."

Included in the bill are provisions that would require collegiate publishers to disclose full textbook pricing information to colleges and faculty, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. This includes textbooks' wholesale prices, summaries of content revision and other formats in which the books are available, such as paperback or unbundled.

Colleges would also need to provide textbook information alongside course descriptions in their annual course catalogs, according to The Chronicle.

These provisions would fail to provide students with accurate textbook information because the catalogs are published long before professors decide which textbooks to use, said Richard Hershman, director of government relations for the National Association of College Stores. Publishers might also change the price of textbooks after professors have chosen them, resulting in hidden costs.

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