Art book without art highlights issue of pricey textbooks

Are students getting gouged? The outcry from a group of first-year students forced to buy an expensive art history book that has no art in it has focused attention on an issue as perennial and seemingly as intractable as fall back-to-school jitters: the cost of college and university textbooks.

Most everyone agrees textbooks can be a significant financial burden for students and their parents but there’s less agreement on what can or should be done to bring the price down.