[Vinnie]

...get the college students used to e-readers for their textbooks,...

Apparently at least some of the teachers unions are fighting ereaders for textbooks.
May have something to do w/ royalties. Most of the textbooks are written by teachers/professors.
Royalties could go to zilch.

The ereader idea seems logical though. Logic is foreign in education.

[antiRepublicrat]

Most of the textbooks are written by teachers/professors. Royalties could go to zilch.

I've seen that. I've also seen a textbook written by family of the head of a department and, presto, it becomes the required textbook for that course. They could charge whatever they wanted because they had a captive audience.

[texas booster]

Textbook manufacturers and authors are the problem. There is simply no legit reason why k12 and colleges couldn't change to eReaders overnight, except for the financial disruption that it would create.

Any savvy professor should immediately convert his small volume publication over to an eReader format that uses DRM. Change the “purchase” of a book to a license that expires in a year. Charge another fee for the student if they want to keep the textbook (bet it won't happen often).

Charge $100 instead of $150 for course materials, and the only people who lose are the copy center staffers and owners.

BTW, you can stop buying stock in vanity presses.