New Law Aims to Help Students Afford Textbooks

A new law looks to make textbooks cheaper in price without making them lower in quality.

In 2008, the 110th Congress passed H.R. 4137, otherwise known as the Higher Education Opportunity Act. It was subsequently signed into law by then President Bush. It finally went into effect on July 1, 2010. The overall intent of this bill was a comprehensive overhaul of the Higher Education Act of 1965. It deals with a wide range of aspects of higher education. One part in particular that would surely be of great interest to at least most students is Section 112, which looks to make it easier for students to afford textbooks.

According to the text of the bill, the "purpose and intent" of the section are "to ensure that students have access to affordable course materials by decreasing costs to students and enhancing transparency and disclosure with respect to the selection, purchase, sale, and use of course materials" and "to encourage all of the involved parties, including faculty, students, administrators, institutions of higher education, bookstores, distributors, and publishers to work together to identify ways to decrease the cost of college textbooks and supplemental materials for students while supporting the academic freedom of faculty members to select high quality course materials for students."

Section 112 of H.R. 4137 sets forth the following regulations to help alleviate textbook costs:

• ·         Publishers have to make CDs, access cards, and other supplemental materials available separate from textbooks. That way they cannot use unnecessary add-ons as an excuse to charge a higher price.
• ·         When marketing books to them, publishers must provide college instructors with specific details regarding the books, including, but not limited to, pricing, changes compared to other editions, and in what formats a book exists.

• Perhaps the most important of these rules, this one directs all colleges and universities that receive money for financial aid from the federal government to provide the price and ISBN of all required/recommended textbooks during registration. If that information is not available, then they must disclose things such as title, author, and edition. According to the text of the bill, that information is to be given "on the institution's Internet course schedule and in a manner of the institution's choosing." In addition, the bill states that schools must "if applicable, include on the institution's written course schedule a notice that textbook information is available on the institution's Internet course schedule, and the Internet address for such schedule."·    

As The New York Times reported on their website, "College textbook prices rose about 6 percent, on average, every year—that's twice the rate of inflation—from 1986 to 2004."

Many students undoubtedly welcome anything to help lessen the ever rising cost of textbooks.

One Cypress student, Angela Call, when asked her opinion of the law, wrote in an email that she felt it "would be helpful" due to the high costs of both enrolling in classes and buying the books for them. She continued by writing, "It'd be nice to know when we register for a class what [book] exactly we are going to need…"

One student who has experienced the benefits of H.R. 4137 described this via email.

Leilani Fuller, a nursing major at El Camino College, wrote, "I heard about this law from my dad, and, honestly, it's been a godsend. Last fall, it cost me two of my paychecks (close to $700) to pay for my books because I wasn't fully aware of what books I needed until my professors demanded I buy them. This fall, because I had time to order from online sites, even though I'm taking more classes (which equates to more books needed), I only paid $200 for everything."

Information regarding the books needed at Cypress can be found online. In fact, Marc Posner of the Cypress College Public Information Office said that measures were "implemented during the spring semester." Someone wanting to find out what book they need for a class could find the course in the Online Searchable Schedule and click on an icon in a column labeled "Text." That would take you straight to the related result on the Cypress College bookstore's website. Alternatively, one could go straight to the bookstore's website and click on textbooks on the right-hand side of the page and follow the on-screen directions.

Unfortunately, not all students are aware of this or even of the law's existence. For instance, Cypress film major Robert Ovalle wrote, "Well, finding out this is the law is very surprising to me. I was not made aware of this…" He felt the school not being more open about how to find textbook information was "rude and a way for the school to take more money [off] us."

According to Posner, "This year, the library did not purchase any new textbooks." This is because they could not afford them. He did mention, though, that there were "other ways the library comes across textbooks" such as donations or evaluation copies. Also, students and teachers have donated textbooks.