"A Miami Dade College professor took a trip to San Francisco, paid for by a textbook publisher.

Weeks later, his three-member committee selected the publisher's book as required reading for all anatomy students at Miami Dade Community College's Kendall campus and the department chairman approved.

Retail cost at the college bookstore - $178.50."

Corruption? Maybe. An easy fix would be for institutions to set a policy setting a maximum textbook price. Multiply that over 1000's of institutions and the market would correct itself.

Wanna nip copyright infringement in the butt (textbook photocopying)? Just roll the textbook fee into course registrqation costs and give out vouchers to claim textbooks from the bookstore. So simple, but nobody's willing to take the heat to "make it so".

Labels: textbooks