Make Textbooks Affordable

Everyone knows that textbooks costs are out of control. The average student spends $900 per year, and prices are rising four times the rate of inflation!

It’s no accident that textbooks are so expensive.  Publishing companies have been raking in huge profits while engaging in bad practices that drive up costs: issuing new editions that make used books hard to find, bundling textbooks with unnecessary CDs and pass-codes, and more.  They get away with it because students don’t have a choice -- we’ve got to buy the book they’re selling, even if the price is outrageous.

The good news is that we have all of the technology we need to make textbooks affordable. Already, there are rental programs at more than 1,500 colleges, hundreds of sites selling used books and more ways to save than ever before. There's also new solutions like open-source textbooks, which could literally revolutionize how much students pay for their books.

We're fighting to rein in costs by promoting cost-saving solutions on campus, while also tackling publishers' stranglehold on the market to change prices for good.  We're educating students, faculty and bookstores, and raising awareness through researchand the media. We're also calling on publishers, colleges and foundations to support the creation of more open-source textbooks that could save students millions each year.

Sign the Textbook Rebellion

Issue updates

Blog Post | Textbooks

Big Day for Open Education! | Nicole Allen

Today was a big day in the movement for free and open textbooks! A conference call featuring U.S. Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter, CALPIRG textbook affordability activist Arthur Karadzhyan, and other leaders kicked off two exciting new initiatives for open education: 

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Media Hit | Consumer, Higher Ed, Textbooks

Groups target textbook prices to rein in college costs

A push to create free or inexpensive textbooks is gaining momentum as educators, philanthropists and policymakers nationwide search for new ways to rein in college costs.

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Media Hit | Higher Ed, Textbooks

Diamondback Editorial about Textbook Costs and Solutions

Yesterday, the Diamondback editorialized about textbook costs and the proposed state law that would create a tax holidays for textbooks during the first 2 weeks of the semester. Unforuntately, this is not a real solution to textbook affordability and the Diamondback agrees. Check out the full article and the quotes from our US PIRG report about textbook affordability.

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Blog Post | Higher Ed, Textbooks

Maryland Should Actually Make Textbooks More Affordable | Brian Compere

In its editorial Monday, the Diamondback got it right saying that while tax-free textbooks would give students a small discount on books there are even better solutions to the systemic problem of textbook affordability.

The California State Senate, for instance, is considering a bill that, according to the author of the bill, California State Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, would “produce 50 high quality, affordable, digital open-source textbooks and related materials for use at the UC, CSU, and Community Colleges.”

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Blog Post | Textbooks

Affordable Textbooks Table | Cat Tappert

If you think textbook prices are too high, you are not alone.

On Wednesday and Thursday, MaryPIRG held a table outside of the Stamp Student Union to collect signatures for a petition advocating more affordable textbooks. The petition specifically advocates the implementation of open-source textbooks, which are free online, affordable to print, and contain the same content as any physical textbook. 

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