Textbooks cost too much
The costs of textbooks are outrageously high. No matter if classes are in-person or online, students like myself are struggling to afford the resource materials we need to get our degrees.
It’s nonsense to me that an institution like college, which many of us need in order to pursue our professional aspirations, we have to overspend for the educational resources we need to just take a class.
This current system is absurd, and it is also worsening as many educational resource companies are resorting to access codes. This means that students have to pay a fee to not just complete their coursework, but to take tests as well. I’m already paying tuition, why do I have to pay more to just do homework and take tests?
While the cost of a textbook has increased over 800% with the cost of inflation since 1980, it’s obvious that the main priority that the college textbook industry has is exploiting every last cent out of the wallets of college students.
If we actually care about the success of students everywhere, we need to switch to open textbooks. Open textbooks are licensed under an open copyright and made available online to be freely used by the public. They are not only high-quality educational resources provided at a minimal cost, but they help give students like me some much-needed financial relief.
Student debt is one of the largest sources of debt in this country and we must do something about it.
Nathan Garcia, Fairhaven
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