A bill submitted last month aimed at combating high textbook prices is gaining momentum in the commonwealth.
Massachusetts Public Interest Group gave its support yesterday when it released a report titled “Exposing the Textbook Industry: How Publishers’ Pricing Tactics Drive Up the Cost of College Textbooks,” which reports the average student spends $900 per year on textbooks.
MassPIRG Campus Program Director Saffron Zomer said the report shows a growing discontent with publishing tactics that result in unjustified textbook prices.
“The textbook industry is taking advantage of a captive student market,” she said.
This is the first time such a report has been done locally, she said.
“It was something that everyone had always known, but that no one had ever documented before.”
Seventy-one percent of professors surveyed for the report said the new editions of textbooks are often printed without changing more than a few words.
“We do not need the 27th edition of the Civil War,” said Rep. Kevin Murphy (D-Lowell), brandishing a book.
Similar bills have been put on the dockets of 14 other state legislatures for 2007, according to the National Association of College Stores. Many of these bills have received support from other state PIRGs.
The American Association of Publishers has voiced strong opposition to MassPIRG’s support of the legislation, arguing it violates intellectual property rights.
“PIRG has tried in states all over the country to introduce legislation similar to this,” Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for higher education at AAP, said. “It has failed in every instance because it’s unconstitutional.”
He said universities largely support a large number of publishing company policies, including bundling books, CDs and DVDs together and making students pay full-price.
“Faculty are the professionals that we entrust and pay to educate our students,” Hildebrande said. “Part of their role and their job is to use their knowledge to pick the best materials available.”
Rep. Steven Walsh (D-Lynn), who submitted the docket item last month, said the bill – which would require textbook publishers doing business in Massachusetts to adhere to several new regulations, including disclosing a list of all its products and proving 10 to 15 percent of the material in their books has changed before publishing new editions – will be met favorably in the House.
“Some members are always afraid of over-regulating,” he said. “But we looked for something that would be palatable in the legislature, and I think we found it.
“The publishing industry has been largely unregulated,” he said. “At least publishers will know we’re watching them.”