Article on college texts

["Joseph J. Esposito" <espositoj@gmail.com>]

Very good piece in today's Wall Street Journal on the practice of 
selling custom textbooks to colleges.  Some colleges receive 
royalties on the sales.

Here is the first paragraph:

"College students, already struggling with soaring tuition bills 
and expenses, are encountering yet another financial hit: 
Publishers and schools are working together to produce "custom" 
textbooks that can limit students' use of the money-saving trade 
in used books. And in a controversial twist, some academic 
departments are sharing in the profits from these texts."

The article is behind a pay wall; the headline is "As Textbooks 
Go 'Custom,' Students Pay."

This piece is well worth reading and pondering.  Personally, I am 
disturbed by the "kickback" (a term used in the article) aspect 
of the practice.

Having said that, the WSJ has its numbers wrong.  It quotes a 
widely reported figure for the average price of textbook 
purchases, which is simply not true.  If you take that "average" 
figure and multiply it by the number of U.S. college students, 
you get a figure that is 3-4 times the size of the textbook 
industry.  (The figure in the article for the size of the new 
college textbook market in the U.S. is also incorrect.  Lies, 
damned lies, and statistics.)

Joe Esposito