Making Textbook Costs Manageable for Students
Help students plan for textbook expenses before each semester.
- Provide students with advance information on textbook prices, allowing them to better plan for their anticipated expenses each semester.
- Give students detailed information on the textbooks their courses require, so that students can shop around for the best deal possible.
Ensure that colleges and bookstores have the information needed to make the most cost effective decisions when purchasing textbooks for their students.
- Require college textbook publishers to provide full pricing information about both bundled textbooks and unbundled alternatives.
- Require colleges and universities to provide bookstores with important course information, including the number of students enrolled.
Provide students with choices when buying textbooks.
- Require publishers to also sell unbundled versions of every bundled textbook they sell.
“This legislation contains several important policy changes to increase access to college and help protect
students, families and taxpayers. The bill mandates publishers disclose the price of textbooks when they
sell them to faculty as well as additional information about the book’s history of revisions. In addition
publishers must sell books and supplemental materials unbundled, ending a practice that drives up the
cost of textbooks for many students.”
-- U.S. PIRGs Higher Education Project and the United States Student Association