Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to present the views of the California Student Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) on the important matter of the high cost of college textbooks.

As you know, the high cost of textbooks has perplexed and frustrated students, parents and faculty for many years. CALPIRG began investigating the issue in July 2003 because the cost of textbooks, combined with recent fee/tuition increases in California, threatened to become a "tipping point" for many middle and low income students that could prevent them from attending college.

It quickly became apparent that, while there were a lot of theories to explain the high cost of textbooks, there was no formal documentation of the problem or potential solutions.

In January 2004, CALPIRG released the report entitled: Rip-off 101: How the Current Practices of the Publishing Industry Drive up the Cost of College Textbooks. This testimony summarizes the findings of that report. Students pay an average of $900 a year for textbooks, textbook publishers use gimmicks to artificially inflate the cost of the textbooks. The report found that publishers often produced new editions with few significant content changes, rendering older, used version of the book obsolete and unavailable. The report also found that publishers add bells and whistles – such as CD ROMs and workbooks – that over 64% of faculty surveyed said they use "rarely" or "never".

Based on this research, CALPIRG recommends that Congress develop policy that will ensure that publishers and universities adopt the following practices:

Student government leaders and faculty are currently organizing a grassroots campaign to convince publishers to voluntarily change their practices. Publishers report that they produce what faculty request of them. In October 2004, more than 500 mathematics professors sent publisher Thomson Learning a letter requesting that the company adopt CALPIRG’s recommendations. Faculty are now waiting for Thomson Learning to deliver on their promise and agree to their request.

In the meantime, several states, including California, are considering legislation that would adopt the recommendations of the report, and students are organizing online bookswaps as a less expensive alternative to buying textbooks in a bookstore or overseas.

Throughout fall 2003, a team of students and staff at ten University of California and Oregon campuses conducted interviews with bookstore managers and faculty and compared different editions of the five most purchased textbooks. The report was peer reviewed by a number of academics and a former publishing industry executive to confirm the statistical validity of the report’s findings and conclusions.

Among the report’s findings:

A particularly egregious example of these practices was publisher Thomson Learning’s widely used calculus book – Calculus: Early Transcendentals, Edition 5. There were only cosmetic changes between the current edition, produced in 2003, and the previous edition, produced in 1999. However, the price difference was significant – a new copy of the book sells for about $130, while a used copy of the previous edition sells for between $20 and $90, depending on where one looks. Second, we found that Thomson Learning charges American students significantly more than its foreign counterparts. According to the publisher’s website, Calculus: Early Transcendentals sells for $125 to American students, but only $97 ($125 C) to Canadian students and only $65 (35 pounds) to British students. This practice is widespread in the industry and has come under a great deal of scrutiny recently.

The publishing industry has responded by actively questioning the methodology of the report. We want to take this opportunity to refute these allegations. The primary criticism is that the sample was too small. In a letter to faculty who support CALPIRG’s recommendation, Ronald G. Dunn, CEO of Thomson Learning, wrote: "…the study surveyed only 521 of the 2.3 million college students in California…only 151 of the 44,545 faculty members teaching in California were surveyed, and 100 of them were math and science instructors."

In response to this allegation, math professors from around the country wrote:

"In statistics, it is the size of the sample that matters, not the absolute size of the population. If your criticism were valid, then practically all polls in this country, including Gallup, would be meaningless. CALPIRG's methods were sound. The aim of the research was to capture the opinions of faculty who interact with the largest number of students. To that end, CALPIRG surveyed only the faculty who taught the five most purchased textbooks at ten colleges and universities in California and Oregon. In our view, this is an appropriately selected sample size."

Signed by:

-Christopher Sogge, Chair, Department of Mathematics, Johns Hopkins University

-Bernard Russo, Chair, Department of Mathematics, University of California, Irvine

-Mark Ashbaugh, Chair, Department of Mathematics, University of Missouri-Columbia

-Paul Goodey, Chair, Department of Mathematics, University of Oklahoma

-Russell Thompson, Chair, Department of Mathematics, Utah State University

-Eugenio Cattani, Graduate Director, Department of Mathematics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Furthermore, eminent statistician Peter Bickel of UC Berkeley was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle in response to Thomson's allegations in January as saying, "'Nonsense. The size of the population doesn't matter. It's the size of the sample that matters.’ With 156 faculty, he estimated, the error rate could be about 10 percent."

The report was released at 24 news conferences across the country including ten in California, receiving media attention across the state and country, totaling more than 400 media mentions from various outlets including U.S. News and World Report, USA Today, Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, and National Public Radio.

Immediately following the report’s release, student government leaders from around the country sent publisher Thomson Learning a letter outlining the concerns CALPIRG’s research identified and requesting that the company adopt the recommendations, especially to the book, Calculus: Early Transcendentals. A few months later, more than 500 mathematics professors from more than 50 colleges issued a joint call to publisher Thomson Learning that reiterated the students’ initial requests; CALPIRG student volunteers spent nearly a month recruiting faculty members from around the country to join this call.

Shortly after these efforts began, Thomson Learning launched a new, "low-frills" series of textbooks designed to be 25% cheaper than the original textbook. In addition, the UCLA Mathematics Department successfully negotiated with Thomson Learning a $20 price reduction in the above mentioned calculus book for the 2004-2005 school year. Currently, several other universities are pressing for similar deals. Finally, independent from all the above efforts, publisher Pearson Education has announced plans to launch a new series of online textbooks in August 2004 that the company claims will be 50% cheaper than print titles.

These are merely small steps, and we think that, if anything, these developments simply provide more evidence that there is ample room to reduce textbook prices even beyond the steps that have been taken.

In the meantime, CALPIRG and the other State PIRGs are sponsoring an online bookswap, www.CampusBookSwap.com, available at 24 campuses in ten states. The bookswap allows students to buy and sell used books directly from each other. The website is run by students, for students, and is free of charge. There are currently more than 5,900 textbooks posted on the site.

The California Legislature is currently considering two bills sponsored by CALPIRG: AB 2477 (State Assemblymember Carol Liu) and AB 2678 (State Assemblymember Paul Koretz). Both bills have passed the Assembly and are now in the Senate.

AB 2477 urges textbook publishers to adopt the report recommendations discussed above, such as "unbundling" textbooks from expensive CD-ROMs and other add-ons. Another recommendation is for publishers to fully disclose the price of textbooks to faculty members so that faculty can take price into consideration when choosing a textbook.

AB 2678 sets up the framework so that public colleges and universities in California can implement textbook rental services, if they so choose.

The Connecticut Legislature also introduced legislation calling on publishers to adopt the recommendations of the report, and the Governor of Illinois has launched an investigation into the practices of publishers.

CALPIRG supports H.R. 3567 (Wu), legislation that has been referred to this committee and requires the General Accounting Office to conduct an investigation of the high price of college textbooks. Many of the questions are the similar to the questions CALPIRG asked in California and Oregon and this investigation will expand to all states. Specifically:

(b)(1) the average amount of money a student spends on textbooks;

(b)(7) the extent to which new editions of textbooks are different from their previous editions, including the percentage of work that is actually substantively changed from one edition to the next; and

(b)(8) the average time period between old and newer editions of textbooks.

The investigation also asks new questions that are critical to understanding how college textbooks are produced, priced and packaged. Specifically:

(a) (2) the average cost to produce a new textbook;

(a) (3) the average cost to produce a new edition of a previously published textbook;

(a) (4) the reasons for the price discrepancy in textbooks in the United States and outside the United States;

(a) (5) the extent of the problem with such price discrepancy; and

(a) (6) whether the price discrepancy problem occurs more in certain subject areas than others.

In CALPIRG’s view, the results of such an investigation will demonstrate, at a minimum, that Congress should develop policy that will ensure publishers and universities adopt the following practices:

The high cost of college textbooks are significantly adding to the overall cost of a college education. Faculty report that student textbook costs are inflated by publisher’s practices, including unwanted and unneeded "bundles" and production of new editions that have few content changes and replace the less expensive used editions. In our view, publishers should make simple changes such as selling textbooks "unbundled" from expensive CD-ROMs and other add-ons and disclosing the price and estimated shelf-life of textbooks to faculty. At the same time, Congress should further investigate the pricing and production of college textbooks by passing HR3567 (Wu). Students deserve to pay fair prices for educational materials that faculty, not publishers, determine add to the quality of their students’ education.