CALPIRG report skews facts about textbooks
There are essential facts that were missed in your recent
article on the price of college textbooks (“Book costs
reevaluated,” News, Feb. 2). I understand and empathize with
the financial pressure that rapidly rising tuition, increased
student fees and textbook costs are placing on students and
parents.
Paying cash for college textbooks has been an emotional issue
for as long as I can remember. It was for my children and me.
I cannot, however, accept the California Public Interest
Resource Group using deceptive information and distortions to grab
headlines and mislead students and the public about college
textbooks.
For example, it is dishonest for CALPIRG to use price-increase
statistics that pertain to the entire textbook market (K-12, as
well as higher education) in a report focused on college
textbooks.
CALPIRG claims in its recent report that the wholesale price of
textbooks has gone up 62 percent since 1994 without making it clear
that the percentage encompasses instructional materials used at the
elementary, high school and college levels. Included in that number
are such items as puzzles, toy blocks and art materials used by
elementary students, and expensive lab supplies used in high
schools.
In addition, CALPIRG attacks the practice of selling
international texts at lower prices than those in the United States
without understanding, or making it clear to readers, that overseas
sales in poorer countries, while small, help to hold down the price
of textbooks in America.
CALPIRG refuses to acknowledge the enormous range of low-cost
textbooks and instructional materials offered by publishers, and
instead attacks the best-selling textbooks in America. Those
textbooks are best-sellers because faculty members choose them
knowing they will best meet their students’ educational
needs.
Also, CALPIRG conveniently overlooks the fact that the faculty
members who make those choices are among the best-educated and most
sophisticated buyers in the nation, and spend years reviewing
textbooks before making their decisions.
There are numerous other examples of CALPIRG’s
misstatements/misunderstandings. The organization constantly cites
research performed by its own student volunteers while ignoring or
attacking contradictory experts from such recognized organizations
as Zogby International, Student Monitor, the College Board and the
R.R. Bowker Co.
For more than a year we have offered to meet with CALPIRG
members, to share information, to build student awareness of the
value choices available to them, and to discuss ways to make
textbooks more affordable. We have renewed our offers to meet with
CALPIRG.
For now, we hope that facts will drive the discussions about
college textbooks and that everyone will keep their eye on the
prize ““ providing the best possible education to
America’s college students.
Patricia Schroeder President and CEO, Association of
American Publishers