Monday, October 25, 2010

Stuff liberals run - College textbooks


The unsustainable "higher education bubble" has received some well-deserved attention lately - watch Glenn Reynolds talk about it in detail here. A direct partner in the "higher education bubble" is the unsustainable "college textbook bubble," captured graphically in the chart above - notice how it totally dwarfs the "real estate bubble." Since 1980, educational books have risen annually at more than twice the rate of overall inflation, 6.7% vs. 3.3% respectively. "When students pay more for new textbooks than tuition in a year, then something's wrong," says Rand S. Spiwak, executive vice president at Daytona State in the article below.

More...

My thoughts from a previous post.........
One of the things they don't mention in the piece is the number of professors who "contribute" to the text you're buying. I've always suspected that their contribution to the process is to force you to buy the book for their brother in arms with a nice little kickback. It's a win situation for everyone.........except the student.

In addition, don't you love the 24th edition of that psychology book that has about four pages different from the original edition?

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