Price of college textbooks still rising

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- The U.S. Congress has passed legislation designed to stem the rising cost of college textbooks but the measure won't help students with purchases this fall.

It will be 2010 before publishers are required to provide more information about textbook pricing and stop bundling texts with one-use CDs and workbooks, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The newspaper says 34 states have introduced similar measures to the one passed by Congress but only six states have actually approved bills.

Estimates of how much students spend on textbooks range from $700 to $1,100 annually.

The latest report by the Government Accountability Office indicates the price of college texts nearly tripled between 1986 and 2004, increasing an average of 6 percent a year when inflation was averaging 3 percent.

The market for new textbooks is estimated at $3.6 billion this year.

Bruce Hildebrand of the Association of American Publishers says risk is built into the price of developing a new textbook.