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Testimony on HB 1200
MASSPIRG's Testimony in Favor of An Act Relative to the Production and Pricing of College Textbooks (HB 1200)
My
name is Saffron Zomer and I am the program director with the
Massachusetts Student Public Interest Research Group. MASS Student
PIRG is a non-profit, non-partisan consumer advocacy organization with
chapters at colleges and universities across the state. I am here
today to testify in favor of the Act Relative to the Production and
Pricing of College Textbooks (HB1200) filed by Representative Steven
Walsh.
Today’s college students are under enormous financial
pressure. The gap between tuition and fees and financial aid leaves
many students working long hours through college, struggling to make
ends meet, and graduating with large debts. The high cost of textbooks
is yet another financial burden. The cost of textbooks is not just a
drop in the bucket of tuition and fees; the average student spends
about $900 per year on textbooks, which is about 30% of tuition and
fees at a community college in Massachusetts. Moreover, textbook prices
are rising at about four times the rate of inflation.
Last
Fall, MASSPIRG conducted a survey of 287 professors from a variety of
disciplines at Massachusetts colleges and universities to get their
views on textbook industry practices that drive up prices. We
identified three main areas of concern:
1. Publishers are not
adequately disclosing price information to the faculty, who do care
about the cost to students and want better information.
Faculty
research and identify textbooks for their classes through two primary
means: publishers’ sales representatives and the Internet.
Of the professors who told us that they regularly use publishers’ websites to research textbooks:
• only 23% rated the site they use as ‘informative and easy to use’
• less than half said that the site typically lists the price of the book
Professors who primarily use non-publisher websites, such as Amazon.com, report higher satisfaction:
• 61% rated the site they use as ‘informative and easy to use’
• 77% told us that the site usually lists the price of the book
For professors who meet with sales representatives to research textbooks:
• 77% told us that sales representatives rarely or never volunteer the price
•
And even when professors directly asked for the price during a sales
meeting, only 38% reported that the sales representative would always
disclose the price.
2. Publishers need to provide unbundled alternatives to bundled textbooks and disclose the availability of these alternatives.
Bundling refers to the practice of shrink-wrapping a textbook with additional materials such as CDs, pass-codes, or workbooks.
Only
50% of the professors who told us that they assigned a bundled book
last semester said that they used the additional materials often.
One-third said that they either could not assign the book they chose
without the bundle or did not know if that option was available. This
finding stands in contrast to the claims of many in the publishing
industry that most of their books are available unbundled.
House
Bill 1200 would take an important first step towards protecting
students and faculty from the unfair business practices which drive up
the price of textbooks, by ensuring that faculty have the information
and options that they need to make optimal decisions on behalf of the
students they teach. This can only lead to better outcomes and lower
costs in the long term. I am enclosing with my testimony a collection
of ‘horror stories from students around the state to give you a sample
of the types of problems that textbook prices are causing to students
from all walks of life.
I hope you will pass this bill favorably
from your committee. Thank you for your time and consideration, and as
always, we look forward to working with you on these important issues.
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