Big Bucks For Books

Many struggle to pay without aid

BY MICHELLE HATFIELD
mhatfield@modbee.com

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This is the fifth installment in a series featuring how students foot the bill for their college degree. Over several months, The Bee is following five local college students to show how they pay for college, whether it�s competing for scholarships or grants, working at on-campus or off-campus jobs, relying on help from their families, or taking out loans. They�ll open their books so we can see how they manage the costs. Today�s story focuses on the ever-increasing price of textbooks.

Full-time student fees for one semester at Modesto Junior College: $260.

Cost of textbooks: Usually much more.

Most community college students are paying more for textbooks than for enrollment and other fees. MJC's Blanca Blanco, 20, doesn't keep her textbook receipts for long. "I don't even want to look at them," she said.

Textbook prices have surged twice the rate of inflation in 20 years, according to a 2005 report by the Government Accountability Office. A $75 textbook purchased two decades ago costs $200 today.

Student groups claim that college access is limited for some students because of the high price of books.

"They know we need them and we'll pay any price to get them, just like gas prices," said Brenda Ramirez, 20, a psychology junior at the University of California at Merced.

On average, a full-time student at a four-year college spends almost $900 on textbooks each year, or about 26 percent of the cost of tuition and fees, the GAO report said. Students at two-year institutions spend a similar amount, though books are a much larger chunk -- 72 percent -- of their college costs.

Student advocates and consumers groups say there are just a handful of textbook publishers and that results in a monopoly and higher prices. But publishers point to increased costs in production, ink and paper.

To combat the rising costs, students search for better deals online. Some buy only used books. Others will share books with classmates. Some campuses are setting up rental programs among students.

When Naomi Adams was heading to college, she heard a lot of rumors.

"People kept saying, 'The thing that's going to kill you is the textbooks,' " said Adams, 20, a speech pathology student transferring from California State University, Stanislaus, to CSU, Fresno, this fall.

When Blanco purchased books for the first time, she gasped.

"I thought, 'I'm going to do this for four or six years and use these books only once,' " she said. Blanco is studying sociology at MJC.

Textbooks range from $25 to a couple hundred of dollars each. In general, books for science majors cost more than those for liberal arts majors.

MJC nursing student Jesse Diaz remembers paying $200 for a surgical nursing book. Without his county and state financial help, Diaz wouldn't have money for the books.

"I'd borrow and steal and beg and rob if I had to," said the 38-year-old single father of two. "This is why we have student loans out there. If people were rich, they wouldn't need to go to school."

Professors order books through publisher catalogs or Web sites. The books are delivered to and purchased by campus bookstores. Though faculty members try to consider cheaper books, they must balance that with picking the best ones for their classes, said Steven Filling, a business professor at Stanislaus State and faculty union president.

Historically, bookstores were the main place students could buy their books. Now, more are getting the book names, editions and prices from their bookstore, then checking online for the best deals. When the semester ends, most students sell books they won't keep to the campus bookstore, but say they are lucky to get half of what they paid.