Posted on 05/31/2024 4:38:56 AM PDT by karpov
Most of the general public, particularly those who know students in college or university, are aware of the sharp increases in the cost of higher education over the last several decades. Such increases have strained the budgets of students and their families and have led to significant increases in student debt. Included in these sharp price increases is the cost of textbooks and online materials that students need for their courses. A commonly cited estimate is that the cost of these materials may average around $1,200 per year per student (or $150 per course for eight courses during an academic year).
These costs are high given the contemporary need for more online materials and the relative market power enjoyed by textbook publishers. Once a faculty member assigns a textbook for a course, perhaps an accounting course, the conscientious student is required to purchase that particular text, giving the publisher some market power over pricing. For many subjects, like introductory economics, there can be 10 or more textbooks that could be satisfactory. A conscientious professor should thus consider both the quality of the textbook and the cost to the student when making a decision for his course. As more faculty consider cost in their decisions, publishers will naturally become somewhat more conscientious in their pricing. However, many faculty members prefer the style and content of a particular text, regardless of cost. They justify their decision as providing the best quality course for their students.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
This department should be eliminated.
Smells like tyranny…
Long ago. Like public broadcasting, it is a Leftist power and propaganda center that should have been defunded when the Republicans had power.
This guy seems to be obsessed with the way textbooks are acquired, rather than the absolute garbage that is in them.
The math is way off and publishers don’t actually have the power — it’s the secondary book buyers and sellers that control the market. Students have a host of options for textbooks, including renting, buying used, or checking out the library copies. Publishers make almost all their sales in the first semester after a new book comes out. That’s the only time students are forced to pay the $150-$250 per textbook, and if the publisher doesn’t charge that it doesn’t make back what it paid to produce the book. After that the secondary market takes over.
Most textbooks are scams written by the useless “professors” teaching useless classes. When I was forced to take the stupid “sociology” studies the prof made us buy his multi hundred dollar books that we barely opened. He was a useless person teaching a useless subject but it was required to graduate. The hard studies (math, engineering, chem) were all relatively cheap.
Do colleges actually still use physical textbooks?
It’s a complicated issue, but at the heart is college texbook markets that are essentially rigged, and somtimes in more than one way.
The way to unrig it all is to change how professors teach. Instead of teaching “from a book” they should/could be teaching about an identifible event or an idea for which there is an explanation. If the teacher is not trying to impart a political bias into the matter, the source the matter comes from is less relevant, and the students could have been given any number of “good sources” to choose from for the course, which together with the change in teaching method will lead to a critical thinking classroom discussion looking at the differences from different sources. Then the teachers will have to teach instead of preach.
Probably will try to do away with printed material. That way the6 can go back and revise history whenever they want. Much harder to get rid of all those pesky books.
How it was done way back when you needed to buy school books and how to get your money back. Keep watching : )
Foolin’ Around 1980 - stars Gary Busey and William Macy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq6DUOiiHuk
Filmed in Minneapolis, Minnesota where I am from.
I recognize many of the filming locations.
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