- [Narrator] So, it's the start of a brand new semester.
Your teacher hands you your syllabus,
and yup, you're going to spend $150 on a textbook
for a class you don't care about.
Turns out, it's not unreasonable
for some four-year college students
to spend close to $500 a year on textbooks,
and it doesn't seem like prices
are coming down any time soon.
Textbook costs rose 67% from 2008 to 2018,
which is putting a serious strain on students' wallets.
But how did the college textbook publishing industry
become so pricey?
Almost 80% of the textbook industry
is dominated by five major publishers,
and they're doing everything in their power
to make sure that students keep buying new textbooks.
To save money, college students started buying
used textbooks for cheaper or rented them from bookstores,
but publishers took notice
and started bundling new textbooks
with special codes that restricted access,
forcing students to buy new textbooks
at the full retail price.
One study reported that 67% of students
skipped buying textbooks altogether
because of rising prices and restrictive codes,
and that's not the only thing publishers have done
to get students to buy new textbooks.
There used to be a new edition update every five years,
but now, the production cycle has been shortened
to two or three years.
New editions have reordered chapters
or changes in page numbers,
making it harder to use older editions,
and they can cost up to $150 more,
but students have some other options to consider
if they want to avoid expensive textbooks.
Some schools are starting to use open-source
educational materials instead of traditional textbooks.
That way, students can access open license texts,
digital media, and other learning materials
for a fraction of the cost,
but the movement is still in its infancy.
So far, only 6% of schools are using these open resources.
It may be a while before we see textbook prices drop,
so for now, you may have to shell over $150
for a textbook you probably won't even read.