One of the hot issues in education these days is the high cost of textbooks.
A knapsack full of them can cost the average collegian as much as $1,200 per year, according to the non-profit College Board.
The cost of texts has risen 82 percent in the past decade, even when adjusted for inflation.
As usual, when there is angst, we instinctively turn to the government for solutions. Thus, some people in Congress have, for the past couple of sessions, been proposing the Affordable College Textbook Act.
It would require money for a federal pilot program to study putting textbooks online, a system for colleges to report on the effectiveness of said program, and a mandate for the General Accountability Office to report to Congress on the results.
But do colleges really need the feds to help them get books online, slash costs and thus avoid protest marches on Old Main?
As it is, most textbooks are authored by professors who are already working at universities on the public dime. It’s called “research.” Why not assign them to write texts for their institutions?
That would not only eliminate moonlighting profs, but also a host of middle men, including publishing houses, distributors, printers, paper mills and ink companies.
Electronic texts hold great promise for K-12 education as well. We don’t hear much about book costs at this level because they usually are paid for by the taxpayers, not our little scholars. The costs only show up under catch-all budget headings called “instructional materials” or “educational resources.” Yet each school book usually costs as much as a rare 17th century manuscript.
The average tab is $80 to $100 per text. Figure 30 kids in a class times five or six classes, and it adds up to major bucks.
Some school districts are already experimenting with online texts, including Mesa, Ariz., a Phoenix suburb.
Sean Enright, director of curriculum there, said district teachers, working with the non-profit K-12 Foundation, have developed e-books for three science and social science classes. He says the plan has been “fairly successful.” The “books” themselves, he says, are “as good” as those bought from expensive publishers.
Selected teachers have been doing the work on the e-books during the summers and, in some cases, after school.
Think of the potential savings. Large school districts could select their very best teachers in each subject and let them write or update texts. The finished products could be sold to small districts that might not have the resources.
And, there could be an added benefit: Teachers could get a one-year or one-semester sabbatical at full pay do the task, thus combating classroom burn-out.
Enright says a major financial hurdle now is the capital outlay for getting electronic devices in the hands of students who can’t afford them.
In other words, if we are to move public schools into the 21st century, a way has to be found to spend a lot up-front and save big later.
Good luck with that.
Dick Hilker (dhilker529@aol. com) is a retired suburban area newspaper editor and columnist who writes twice a month for The Denver Post.
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit or check out our for how to submit by e-mail or mail.
