1. Decrease in State Funding:

The government has been scaling back on the funding on college education since the great recession of 2008. Post the recession, states cut inflation-adjusted spending on K–12 education by approximately 4% between 2008 and 2013. As per the latest annual survey of state spending by the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO), state spending per student has declined at public colleges and universities by around 8%. The State appropriations per full-time student have fallen from an inflation-adjusted $8,489 in 2007 to $7,642 in 2017.

On the other hand, per-student tuition revenue has increased by 96%. Now post-secondary tuition fee provides more revenue than public appropriations. The overall state funding for public two- and four-year colleges in the 2017 school year was nearly $9 billion below its 2008 level, after adjusting for inflation. This decrease in state funds have compelled educational institutes to prescribe high priced books, so that they can earn from their bookstore contracts.

2. New Amenities that Adds to the Tuition Fee:

Institutes and universities today have many more amenities and facilities than what were available a couple of decades ago. World-class sports building, gymnasiums, state-of-the-art laboratories and many more such infrastructural developments for a holistic development of student is being planned and created.

But, when it comes to funding these structures, educational institutes rely heavily on sponsorships, as the government is not going to pay for an Olympic-size pool in the university. This adds up to the tuition fees. Spending a huge sum for a two year or four year college leaves students with less funds to support their educational requirements.

 3. Easy Availability of Student Loans:

The increase in tuition fees and the corresponding increase in the price of textbooks compelled students to take education loans. Education loans are easily available, and hence assuming that students can anyway pay for the books with their loan funds, publishers refuse to bring down the textbook prices.

A lot of students owe crippling debts to the state and are still struggling to pay off their student loan even after getting a job. Some of them just don’t bother to pay back, adding to the debt. There are more than 44 million borrowers who collectively owe $1.5 trillion in student loan debt in the U.S.

4. New Editions of Textbooks:

Publishers are aware of students resorting to used books to reduce spending on new textbooks every semester. As a result of this, publishers lose out on their income. With so many used books in circulation, it becomes difficult for publishers to sell new textbooks.

So, they started releasing new editions every few years to make the previous books obsolete. A smart move indeed. But, again, students have to bear the additional expenses. The average American student spends around $1,200 every year on textbooks and class supplies.

 5. Faculty Recommendations:

Many times, students do not have a say in which books to purchase. The faculty recommends a list of books for the term and all students are required to have those books. Now with new editions coming up every few years, some faculty members want all the students to have the same book.

So, using an old edition might not work, although it could save some money for the student. At times, these books are heavily priced, forcing students to attend classes without textbooks. As per a study, 65% of students have skipped buying required textbooks at some point.

If you notice, all the above-mentioned points are somehow interlinked. This link needs to break, only then can students have a better opportunity at buying textbooks. So how do publishers break the wheel and regulate the prices of textbooks. One plausible solution to this problem is the introduction of digital textbooks.

While there’s nothing a student can do to make the state allocate more funds or reduce the tuition fee, they can at least have affordable educational materials with the help of digital textbooks. Thus, replacing expensive textbooks with technology in the classroom is the right thing to do in the current scenario.

Related: Are Digital Textbooks More Effective for K-12 Curriculum

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