Textbook Prices Under Congressional Fire Again
A Congressional committee has begun a comprehensive study into the rising cost of textbooks, a figure a federal report found nearly tripled in the past two decades.
According to Business Week magazine, the U.S. House of Representatives recently commenced a year-long look into why textbook prices have increased at twice the rate of inflation since the mid-80s. The 2005 Government Accountability Office issued a report showing prices rose 186 percent between 1986 and 2004.
Tuition and fees during the same period rose by 240 percent.
The article also states that the House’s Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance is expected to formulate recommendations to attempt to ease the increasing price and help the books used by undergraduate college students become more affordable.
According the finds of the GAO report, full-time students--at both two-year and four-year public institutions--spent nearly $900 a year on books in the 2003-2004 academic year.
The committee held a similar hearing two years ago to discuss the same issue.