In a post last week, I mentioned that college textbook prices have greatly increased over the last couple decades. Here’s a nice visual that says it all.
Annual % Increase in College Textbook Prices, College Tuition/Fees, and Overall Price Inflation (CPI)
Owing to the nature of state tuition support, textbook expenditures represent a far greater percentage of total cost for students at public colleges compared to private colleges. In the long run, online learning technology and open source educational resources will help to alleviate this problem. In the short run, perhaps the need grant can provide a more flexible pillar of financial support than tuition subsidies.
