Make Textbooks Affordable

Everyone knows that textbooks costs are out of control. The average student spends $900 per year, and prices are rising four times the rate of inflation!

It’s no accident that textbooks are so expensive. Publishing companies have been raking in huge profits while engaging in bad practices that drive up costs: issuing new editions that make used books hard to find, bundling textbooks with unnecessary CDs and pass-codes, and more. They get away with it because students don’t have a choice -- we’ve got to buy the book they’re selling, even if the price is outrageous.

The good news is that we have all of the technology we need to make textbooks affordable. Already, there are rental programs at more than 1,500 colleges, hundreds of sites selling used books and more ways to save than ever before. There's also new solutions like open-source textbooks, which could literally revolutionize how much students pay for their books.

We're fighting to rein in costs by promoting cost-saving solutions on campus, while also tackling publishers' stranglehold on the market to change prices for good. We're educating students, faculty and bookstores, and raising awareness through researchand the media. We're also calling on publishers, colleges and foundations to support the creation of more open-source textbooks that could save students millions each year.

Sign the Textbook Rebellion Petition

Issue updates

Resource | Textbooks

Textbooks Project Packet

Summary

Want to join the fight to make textbooks affordable? Download this resource for everything you need to know to organize the textbooks campaign on your campus.

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Media Hit | Higher Ed

Students Lose When Financial Aid Goes Onto Fee-Laden Debit Cards

Thought the student loan crisis was bad as it is? Now add hefty fees into that mix. Providers say students can avoid the fees that pile up when they elect to receive their financial aid on a debit card, but new research from a consumer advocacy group finds that these companies throw up roadblocks to keep the fee revenue rolling in, even as colleges make big bucks off their affiliations with these institutions.

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Media Hit | Higher Ed

Campus debit cards can carry downsides

Consumer advocates have long criticized the amount of fees associated with debit cards. Most recently, a report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund found that hundreds of colleges have partnerships with financial companies to put a student’s financial aid on debit or prepaid cards that carry hefty fees. Under some of these deals, official student photo ID cards can double as debit cards.

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News Release | Student PIRGs | Consumer Protection, Higher Ed, Student Debt

Banks Skim Millions in Fees from Student Aid Using Debit-Card-Linked Student IDs

Washington, D.C. – Over 9 million students are at risk for increased educational debt, due to bank-affiliated student debit cards that come with high fees, insufficient consumer protections, and few options. Financial institutions now have affinity partnerships with almost 900 campuses nationwide, grafting bank products onto student IDs and other campus cards to become the primary recipient of billions in federal financial aid to distribute to students.

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Report | Consumer Protection, Higher Ed, Student Debt

The Campus Debit Card Trap

Banks and other financial firms are taking advantage of a variety of opportunities to form partnerships with colleges and universities to produce campus student ID cards and to offer student aid disbursements on debit or prepaid cards. In addition to on-campus services, such as student ID functions offered on the card, some cards offer traditional debit card services linked to bank accounts; other cards provide additional reloadable prepaid card functions. The disbursement of financial aid and university refunds is the most significant partnership identified.

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