So much hand-wringing, so many academics and politicians vowing to solve the problem, so little reality check.
In 1987, my final year at Dear Old Wabash, my final year of tuition, room & board, plus mandatory fees was $10,000, give or take a few hundred. This year, the 2007-2008 cost 20 years later will be $33,550. That's a whopping 235% increase over 20 years. That's a tidy 6.24% compounded annual increase. That's of course in line with most studies of runaway college costs lately and in line with college costs rising more than twice the annual rate of inflation. In fact, if college costs had risen exactly with inflation costs for the last 20 years, that 10 grand at Dear Old Wabash in 1987 dollars would "only" be costing $18,400 in 2007. A not insignificant savings of $15,000 over reality.
So in 1988 when I left 'Bash for "the real world" my first stop was in college textbook publishing. At the time, the "average" business statistics book retailed for $50. Today, that same typical business stats book will set you back $140. That's about a 5.57% compound annual growth rate over 19 years. Still ahead of inflation. If that $50 book had increased price at the rate of inflation, it would cost about $90.
If college cost increases had actually been held down to the book rate of 5.57%, that $10k of Wabash education would "only" be costing you $29,700. That's a $4000 per year savings over reality.
So yes, while both college and textbook costs are rising faster than inflation, and certainly faster than my wages or those of anyone I know, if you want to do something real about the money being stolen from you to pay for the cost of entry for your kids into the "real world," attack the elephant in the room that costing you $4000-$15,000 a year over what "the real world" says it should. The few hundred a year you might save if textbook costs were held down to inflation rates are chump change in this equation, or beer money for our beloved, departed Tommy's Silver Dollar Saloon.
Sidenotes:
- College textbook publishers are not subsidized by billions of dollars in state and local grants (our tax money) the way colleges are. There's another hidden cost that further separates the rate of growth of college costs from college textbooks
- College textbook publishers are not endowed by gifts from graduates, gifts that for colleges fortunately mask their real expenditure growth from students and parents
- Colleges don't have to fight an expensive used textbook market that cuts textbook sales to less than half the number of students enrolled in a class for a book used 3-4 years. Imagine if at the end of the semester, a student could resell their 3-hour intro to psych class ("I'm never using that again!"). That's 1/5 of the usual student load, tuition alone at 'Bash is $26 large, a student would pay say 1/2 price for a "used" intro to psych class ("B+ intro psych education, barely used, aisle seat near the back") so the incoming student pays $2500 to the selling student and the college is out $5k. I'll bet the college would have an answer to the "used" education market if it hit them the way it does publishers
Disclaimer: Working for Wiley, I have some fairly obvious interests in textbooks. I don't work in the textbook division, although some of our Wrox books are used as texts in many CS courses and programming skills classes at a variety of schools. But, trust me, you can be sure I had these opinions about the real drivers in bankrupting parents and students LONG before I came to Wiley.
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