>>...the average price of a textbook is $75 to $100, whereas digital media can be distributed cheaply... <<
Neither here nor there, since a textbook doesn’t need to be replaced each year for each student. The ones I used in elementary school - and I grew up in a suburb that is still considered affluent - were used before I got them.
most of those text books today get lost or tossed or ruid
They don't wear out, but colleges usually use a given textbook for only a couple of years. I myself am absolutely certain that there's quite a bit of payoff from the publishers to the state buyers that makes it necessary to get a "new edition" of a calculus textbook every five years or so.
I hear you but there are a limit to how many years they can be reused. They also seem to be becoming less sturdy as they are manufactured more cheaply. Textbook publishers have hit the limit that many states can afford to pay and new means of squeezing profit out have come from the production side.