Schooling is expensive, the prices of tuition, transportation, housing, and more drain college student’s wallets which makes added expenses like textbooks a major inconvenience. According to a poll taken by the Education Data Initiative (EDI), 25% of students reported needing to work extra hours at some point in order to afford books and 11% of students admitted to skipping meals in order to pay for textbooks. The average college textbook is around 105.37 US dollars which adds up fast when multiple books are needed for multiple classes. Furthermore, textbook prices have only been climbing in the last 50 years not only because of inflation but because of the relatively inelastic market. As seen on the graph, the annual price for textbooks has been climbing higher than medical care or even new home prices since 1978.  

Graph from American Enterprise Institute

The rising prices in textbooks have proven to be a problem among students, so how can students find ways to afford college textbooks? There are a few movements that are becoming mainstream currently in an effort to answer this question. The used textbook movement had taken college students by storm. There are now hundreds of websites and stores dedicated to selling or renting used textbooks. Students benefit from the drop in prices and use a perfectly functional book even if it is not brand new. 

The second movement, which is not as well-known, is the open education movement. The open education movement seeks to provide free, open textbooks resources to students to eliminate the barrier of textbook prices. This is done through professors writing their own textbooks and publishing a copy for free online or having students write textbook chapters as assignments and having them be accessible online. This open-source style of textbook education could easily eliminate the textbook financing problem among college students. Many professors and faculty here at SPSCC choose to use open education styles in order to teach material and it is currently being promoted so that more students can have equal opportunities. To learn more about this movement you can visit the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition’s website. 

Additionally, there are resources that we at South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC) provide in order to help students succeed in the area of textbook finances. Ryer Banta, the Open Education Librarian at SPSCC emphasized the programs that SPSCC offers to help students succeed in their textbook finances. “This (the programs) is a fabulous piece of the puzzle of what we are trying to do here which is lower costs for students” he said. These programs such as the Running Start Program, IGNITE program, and Black Scholars have been at SPSCC for a while and have been helping students pay for textbooks and materials. Ryer expressed how “to get these students the materials they need on day one, it directly addresses the challenge of rising course materials and it’s set up to give everyone a more equal footing.” The programs work by students finding their eligibility and then filling out an application. If accepted, the students would then be able to pick up their textbooks the week before classes start. We hope that these services continue to help students succeed in their courses and thrive during their time here at SPSCC. Banta shared his hopes for the future of these programs and the Open Education initiative, “my overall hope is that we can continue to have the funding and support to keep up with changing textbook needs. I want to see the Open Education program growing and expanding, I want to see more faculty choose Open Education when appropriate. I hope all these programs continue to shine a light on educational quality while also considering cost but being aware of all the options. I hope that in the future there will be less reliance on textbooks and more support for multimedia content.” 

To learn more about open education, visit the SPSCC’s guide to open education and to learn more about programs like Ignite and Black Scholars visit the Ignite and Black Scholars page in the SPSCC website to find how you are eligible and get to reading!

Work Cited 

“Annual Percent Changes From 1978 for Educational Books, Medical Care, New Home Prices, and the CPI through 2014.” American Enterprise Institute.

Hanson, Melanie. “Average Cost of College Textbooks [2023]: Prices per Year.” Education Data Initiative, https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college-textbooks. Accessed 4 May 2023.

“Open Education.” SPARC, https://sparcopen.org/open-education/. Accessed 4 May 2023.