The high cost of textbooks places added strain on the wallets of already overburdened students. But what can be done about it? For most, expensive books are a sad fact of life.
Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) has been working to change that fact. The latest embodiment of that effort is the Textbook Rebellion coalition. Nicole Allen, advocate for the Student PIRG and campaign manager for Make Textbooks Affordable, elaborated on the group’s makeup and ultimate goal.
“Textbook Rebellion is a group of students, university faculty members, parents, community leaders, anyone who has a vested interest in higher education, that is dedicated to raising awareness about cheaper alternatives to high priced new editions,” she said. “We also strive to reduce the cost of texts and expose the ways in which publishing companies exploit students.”
Allen explained that publishers have a monopoly on the market, which allows them to charge very high prices. She is also critical of new editions that may or may not be necessary.
The PIRG organization began work on this problem in 2003. Students involved in CALPIRG at the University of California Irvine proposed to Student PIRG, the National organization of all the PIRGs, that the high cost of textbooks should be addressed nationwide. Student PIRG began working on the issue. In January 2004 they produced a survey report entitled Rip Off 101. The report sparked interest in the cause nationwide.
Over the next eight years several strategies were developed to reduce the price of books. In 2005, 200 physics professors signed a letter calling on publishers to reduce costs and stop issuing new editions unless necessary. Connecticut became the first state in the nation to pass a textbook price disclosure law in 2006.
Student PIRG gathered hometown support and advocated in Congress, which resulted in a national law being passed – the Higher Education Opportunity Act. It was passed in 2008 and went into effect in 2010. The bill forces publishers to disclose the price of their textbooks to professors when they offer them for consideration for a course.
Despite the added pressure on publishers to produce cheaper textbooks, the cost remains high.
Textbook Rebellion was launched April in 2011 with the goal of uniting all parties involved – students, parents, professors, and concerned citizens, to raise awareness of the problem and work quickly towards a solution.
MASSPIRG joined in the fight with rest of the nation’s PIRGs, hosting the Textbook Rebellion tabling event September 8th. Allen, together with Rani Pimentel, a representative for the publishing company Worldwide Center for Mathematics, used the event to raise awareness about cheaper alternatives and collect signatures to bring to Congress.
Worldwide Center For Mathematics is a small publisher of math Photos by Max Tsekhanovsky
science textbooks. Photos by Max Tsekhanovsky
“We are a for-profit company,” Pimentel explained. “We are a new Photos by Max Tsekhanovsky
company but we produce affordable textbooks and have been successful. Northeastern University bought over 600 of our books. Similar purchases have been made by ten other universities spread out across the country.”
Nicole Allen made it a point to say, “Faculty is our biggest aid in the fight for more affordable education.”
