To the Editor:
Re “How Professors Help Rip Off Students” (Op-Ed, Dec. 12), about the exorbitant cost of textbooks:
Tim Wu urges educators to explore the many options for course materials that are now available, pointing out that “instructors should at least take a look at what’s out there.” We couldn’t agree more.
Education publishers have prioritized affordability with many new initiatives that have dramatically reduced the cost of materials, like interactive courseware, text rental or subscription models, innovative apps and Inclusive Access, which provides students with digital materials on the first day of class, often at a reduced cost.
Recent data suggests that the new options have already resulted in a decline in student spending on textbooks and course materials: Student Watch, funded by the National Association of College Stores, found a yearly drop of $45 a year over the last five school years, a 35 percent decrease, going from $638 to $415 in the most recent year available.
The bottom line is this: Publishers are constantly providing new, affordable options, and we strongly urge the university community to take full advantage of all the possibilities.
Maria A. Pallante
Washington
The writer is president and chief executive of the Association of American Publishers.
To the Editor:
I am a junior at a private high school, and my family spent hundreds to buy this year’s textbooks. My history and English books were worth the price, as I regularly use them to read and take notes, but the little use of other books does not justify prices at or above $100.
Ideally, students would buy only the textbooks that teachers use to teach the class. Instead, I have finished classes without taking the book out of its packaging.
A solution would be waiting until the book is needed, but the school’s online bookstore takes a long time to ship books, forcing students to buy their books during the summer. Meanwhile, teachers continue to assign textbooks they do not even plan on using.
Taking Advanced Placement classes already brings the cost of prep books and a $94 charge per A.P. test. No one should be paying hundreds of dollars to have a heavy paperweight.
Amy Badrock
San Jose, Calif.
To the Editor:
Thank you, Tim Wu, for helping me set the record straight. I am a lifelong textbook author, and my writing is a full-time job. My books don’t qualify for tenure. Academia denigrates textbooks as second class. Authors and publishers don’t get a penny for used books, or from the lucrative businesses that buy back instructors’ copies and sell them to students.
The real reason textbook prices have increased has nothing to do with greed. It’s the proliferation of second sources that profit from our work.
Every sentence of my books is vetted by multiple editors and experts. Most important, my writing demands a different skill set than that of researchers, who study narrow aspects of a field. Textbooks scan the whole picture. They organize a discipline. It takes years of practice to write in compelling prose that captivates students.
I have a successful textbook in human development, a basic college course. And last year I finally earned $200,000, far from the $42 million in royalties for one writer Mr. Wu cites.
Yes, textbooks should be far cheaper. But the special craft of textbook writing cannot be bought on the cheap!
Janet Belsky
Celebration, Fla.
Source: Read Full Article
Home » Analysis & Comment » Opinion | Paying Too Much for That College Textbook
Opinion | Paying Too Much for That College Textbook
To the Editor:
Re “How Professors Help Rip Off Students” (Op-Ed, Dec. 12), about the exorbitant cost of textbooks:
Tim Wu urges educators to explore the many options for course materials that are now available, pointing out that “instructors should at least take a look at what’s out there.” We couldn’t agree more.
Education publishers have prioritized affordability with many new initiatives that have dramatically reduced the cost of materials, like interactive courseware, text rental or subscription models, innovative apps and Inclusive Access, which provides students with digital materials on the first day of class, often at a reduced cost.
Recent data suggests that the new options have already resulted in a decline in student spending on textbooks and course materials: Student Watch, funded by the National Association of College Stores, found a yearly drop of $45 a year over the last five school years, a 35 percent decrease, going from $638 to $415 in the most recent year available.
The bottom line is this: Publishers are constantly providing new, affordable options, and we strongly urge the university community to take full advantage of all the possibilities.
Maria A. Pallante
Washington
The writer is president and chief executive of the Association of American Publishers.
To the Editor:
I am a junior at a private high school, and my family spent hundreds to buy this year’s textbooks. My history and English books were worth the price, as I regularly use them to read and take notes, but the little use of other books does not justify prices at or above $100.
Ideally, students would buy only the textbooks that teachers use to teach the class. Instead, I have finished classes without taking the book out of its packaging.
A solution would be waiting until the book is needed, but the school’s online bookstore takes a long time to ship books, forcing students to buy their books during the summer. Meanwhile, teachers continue to assign textbooks they do not even plan on using.
Taking Advanced Placement classes already brings the cost of prep books and a $94 charge per A.P. test. No one should be paying hundreds of dollars to have a heavy paperweight.
Amy Badrock
San Jose, Calif.
To the Editor:
Thank you, Tim Wu, for helping me set the record straight. I am a lifelong textbook author, and my writing is a full-time job. My books don’t qualify for tenure. Academia denigrates textbooks as second class. Authors and publishers don’t get a penny for used books, or from the lucrative businesses that buy back instructors’ copies and sell them to students.
The real reason textbook prices have increased has nothing to do with greed. It’s the proliferation of second sources that profit from our work.
Every sentence of my books is vetted by multiple editors and experts. Most important, my writing demands a different skill set than that of researchers, who study narrow aspects of a field. Textbooks scan the whole picture. They organize a discipline. It takes years of practice to write in compelling prose that captivates students.
I have a successful textbook in human development, a basic college course. And last year I finally earned $200,000, far from the $42 million in royalties for one writer Mr. Wu cites.
Yes, textbooks should be far cheaper. But the special craft of textbook writing cannot be bought on the cheap!
Janet Belsky
Celebration, Fla.
Source: Read Full Article