By Mohammed Omane

College textbooks, like college tuition, have increased drastically in price over the years. While some of it is due to inflation, college textbooks are 812 percent higher today than they were in the 1980s, according to the American Enterprise Institute. To put this in perspective, the average housing prices across the U.S. (which have often indicated the economy’s strength) have only increased around 200 to 300 percent, depending on the location, since 1980.

This drastic price increase is not benefiting anyone other than the book publishers. For students, affording a new college textbook is a financial challenge in itself. In my three classes, the average cost of a single new textbook is almost $160 dollars. Used textbooks are significantly cheaper, averaging around $70 for me. The typical student who takes four courses a semester will have a total book cost of $680 for a set of new books, or $280 for used books. Here at SMCC, where a single course is roughly $270 dollars, even buying used books for your four classes is the equivalent of one entire course.

Besides this hyperinflation, do college textbooks contain more knowledge than they did three decades ago? Yes and no. While information in all subjects has advanced, the typical introductory statistics or biology course contains the nearly same information. Many new editions of textbooks are released every year, but aside from chapter switches or additional practice problems, not a lot changes. However, if you were to compare a fourth and fifth edition of the same textbook you would quickly notice the huge margin in prices.

Yet, students of today often gain little insight or knowledge from simply reading textbooks in this fast society. Not a lot of people who work, raise kids or have extracurriculars necessarily have the time to fully understand every single concept presented. Other modes of learning (Khan Academy, Udemy or even YouTube) have become more popular sources for really gaining understanding those difficult concepts.

Not to mention, the majority of students don’t often buy textbooks and still complete courses successfully, according to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

On a positive note, though, there’re have been a lot of new methods to acquiring the textbook. Amazon’s rental system is often a popular source to get your semester textbooks. Ebooks are also becoming popular for students looking for a more affordable (and less heavy) alternative. And if you’re the type of student that prefers to not read at all, maybe don’t take that philosophy course on Plato’s “Republic.”