more layers of legislation. an option is to purchase the exact same textbooks from websites in other countries. the reason these texts are so expensive here is that they have higher publisher prices in the states, DUE TO REGULATIONS.

The Associated Students of the University of Missouri, the student lobbying organization for the University of Missouri System (including 63,000 students) included this bill in their priorities as well as students from Truman State University. The Missouri Higher Education Consortium, which is comprised of the presidents of the student governments for all of the two and four year universities in Missouri endorsed the bill. My point: All Missouri public schools' student governments have endorsed the bill. Also, the Association of College Stores, representing over 3,100 college bookstores nationwide have endorsed the bill.

Also, the publishing companies actually testified in favor of the bill in the Senate, saying that the bill would help to lower student costs by adding transparency but not adding costs because of the regulations.

Heritage must not be aware that before this bill, there was virtually no "regulations" regarding college textbooks. Also, Heritage, how do you recommend buying the college textbooks for American universities from other countries when the professor picks the books? Do you have a source that students can utilize that is overseas and is the exact same book as our professor picked?

I think it's interesting that a student that is attending Notre Dame is chiming in on legislation in Missouri. Almost identical legislation has passed in numerous other states, and it has not added costs or problems. Too bad Mr. Grana wasn't in the Missouri capitol to really understand the mission statement of promoting "market solutions" to problems. I think that including students, universities, publishers, and bookstores in discussions in forming this bill promotes "market solutions" to the problems because everyone sat down at the same table.

here is one..... of hundreds. just google overseas college textbooks http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE3DC1E3EF932A15753C1A9659C8B63tbooks.

these books are sold overseas to publishers at a HUGE discount because the textbook companies here have a ridiculous lobby. why add another LAYER of legislation? just another example of how our US companies are pricing themselves out of existence. these books are EXACTLY the same, page numbers correspond, and photos are identical if occasionally in black and white.

why don't you read this article? you might learn something. my son graduated summa cum from a new york college. we saved over half on most of his texts by ordering them this way.

sorry, the paper didn't copy the site fully. just try google.........it is really not that hard!

Interesting article, I will note however that it is from 2003 and I'd be interested in comparing the current prices with Amazon and the Amazon UK websites and others. I get my books from a combination of sources, at as cheap of a cost as I can find.

Most students however, aren't interested in finding the best deal and searching for them. That's why we need the legislation, because even 77% of professors, according to research by the Student Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), believe that legislation was needed for them to make the best decisions on textbook decisions. In our society, the students and parents shouldn't have to search overseas to try to find their textbooks for a reasonable cost.

The bill, which this article didn't point out, is three-fold.

1. Requires the publishing companies, when asked, to give the price that they will sell the book to the bookstore.

2. Provide the major content differences between the newest and second newest edition of the book, as well as the copyright dates for that specific book if there are numerous editions, dating back 10 years. Also, if the book is in any other format (online/PDF/any other form).

3. Universities, if and when feasible, must begin to form a method that financial aid/scholarships would also pay for a student's books, only after the aid has been applied to tuition and fees. Most of Missouri's public universities do this already.

You say this adds "another layer of legislation" but that's what is needed sometimes to correct a market that is backwards. When one group controls so much in a market to where it's costing much more than it should, the government should step in and help to fix the problem. That's what happened with this bill. No student should have to go overseas in a desperate search for cheaper textbooks, and I can't think of much of a better way for the government to step in to try to help correct the problem.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Dan Grana responded to the criticism from the bill's sponsor at the Show-Me Institute's blog, here:

http://tinyurl.com/49685k

I should add that Grana's piece was carefully vetted by several people who have significantly more than a freshman-year level of economics training -- as does Grana himself.

Grana is also a Saint Louis native, currently working for a Missouri-based think tank with offices in Clayton and Columbia, that maintains a focus on this state's public policy.

Eric D. Dixon
Show-Me Institute

Thanks for your concern about this issue. In addition to the response posted above (http://tinyurl.com/49685k) I'd like to comment on the reader input.

Like Heritage, I believe market competition is a more realistic solution to high costs at the bookstore. I've found a basic search of domestic, online used books sellers to be easy, quick, and up to the task of keeping my costs down.

CraigS pointed out an impressive list of organizations standing behind the bill. However, I suspect that each has a biased interest in seeing the bill passed. The student lobby believes (I think incorrectly) that it will reduce their costs. As I argue in my commentary, bookstores and publishers have an economic interest in separating potential revenues from the thrift of individual shoppers. This bill would do just that.

It seems that currently only those involved in higher education and the Missouri government even know about this bill. I suspect we can all agree that Missourians deserve to be given a fair opportunity to evaluate the bill before it becomes law.

Dan Grana

".....the government should step in and help to fix the problem." craig, i have NEVER seen the government fix any problem with much success. thanks, but i can find my own solutions, and i think that you do students a disservice in inferring that they cannot do likewise. i concur with grana and his assertion that market forces are far more effective. as an example, with gas prices reaching levels comparable to those in europe, mass transportation, conservation, and innovation will be the bywords of the next generation. cheap gas has allowed us to continue to drive gas hogs and to disregard the issues which this nation now faces. i would warrant that those students who are not being put through university by their parents are already well aware of the ins and outs of overseas availability of textbooks.

I also beleive that market forces are the true way to finding the cheapest form of finding textbooks, but I also believe that when the professors aren't getting useful information such as: copyrights of the same textbook, variations between the most recent editions and the second most recent, and even the price, this is a problem to the "market force" and ensuring the professors these rights, when asked, is the best way to help solve this problem.

I don't believe this will directly "lower textbook costs" for students. The books I purchase for my classes this summer and the fall will not be lower because of this bill. This is a first step into opening transparency into the system from the publishing standpoint. It's pretty common knowledge that a bookstore adds approximately 25% to the wholesale cost of a book to create the retail price. Some bookstores, such as the MU Bookstore, are owned by the University and all profits go back to the students via student auxillary services on campus. Also, the "mom and pop" bookstores are disappearing around the country, because there really is no money involved in the bookstore process anymore.

Used books and purchasing books via other sources are important for students, but when professors are picking the newest editions when there is just "wordsmithing" going on between the editions, the professors need to know the content differences. This is what the bill does. It's transparency from the publishers to the professors and students.

Professors should NOT choose a book just based on price, but if the older edition is nearly identical to the newest edition, then the professor should have the RIGHT to know the content differences. If these differences are nearly nonexistent or they can provide the new content from a free source, the professor should have the ability to make a decision of a book based on price and content. Right now, they just are given one option: new edition at a higher cost. Now, when they ask, they will be given an abundance of information and the publishers admit that this will NOT add a cost burden to their productions.

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) testified in favor of this bill, as well as other publishing companies, saying that this final bill will not raise the book costs, but yet accomplishes the desired effect of providing transparency. These "burdens" that Mr. Grana says the publishing companies will encounter are false, even by the publishing companies themselves.

Also, the bill had 40 cosponsors, including the Majority and Minority leaders in the Missouri House. Of both votes on the House Floor, the votes were unanimous, with no dissenting votes. The Senate had 1 "no" vote. It was overwhelming the the Missouri General Assembly approved this bill, and believed it would provide the needed transparency between the publishers, professors, and students.

my experience is that in major universities many of the profs are actually the authors of said textbooks. perhaps i am simply not used to the missouri system? what are the stats on the number of MO profs who are also the authors of the textbooks which are used in their classes? also, in technology/medical/science arenas the most current info is imperative. maybe if you are looking for texts for a lit class this would make sense? IMO, the fact that any legislature endorses a concept makes it de facto suspect.

In my three years of taking college classes, I have only had two classes in which we used their book. Both were small, supplemental books though, and one was a best seller in the mid-1990s on Walt Disney.

This is probably one of the most common mistaken beliefs, I think, in the world of academia. I agree that in technology/medical/science arenas, they do need the most current information. But when a professor can provide that additional material from a free source and choose an older book? Or why can't the publisher put out a small supplemental booklet with the updates so the professor can continue to chose the older edition (and purchase it from online, cheap sources) and allow students to purchase the new, updated information in a booklet or small book at a reduced cost.

These are the conversations that they should be having, to help transform the textbook world, and before these bills, they were not happening.

California, Washington and Oregon have passed similar laws as HB2048 here in MO. None of these have reported a rise in textbook costs because of the Transparency Acts passed.

the authors of these textbooks are highly educated and qualified individuals who have every right to make a little money from their lifelong achievements? have you ever had the pleasure of sitting in a classroom or lecture hall with the actual expert who "wrote the book"? a side effect of your support of this legislation will be that the bookstores which You report are owned and operated by the university will simply be a rise in tuition, or loss of the auxiliary perks which they provide with their bad bad profits. use those brain cells, and please take an economics class.....hopefully with a professor who has the prominence to be Published.

I'm not saying that that they should profit a bit from their textbooks at all. As I just said above, I have had the luxury of sitting in two classes where we did use the professor's book. Both were great experiences as well, and I have recommended and had friends take both professor's classes. I would take both classes, as well, again in a heartbeat.

There is no proof of your statement that the bookstores that are owned and operated by the University will have 'bad profits' or the University will "raise tuition" because of it. It is just a tiny bit longer of a process than that. The university isn't that irresponsible or irrational as you imply.

I have had plenty of economics classes in my time, with published profess

my "bad bad" profits comment was completely tongue in cheek, as in bad dog, bad dog. we are just going to have to agree to disagree. i believe in market forces, and you place your faith in governmental regulation. universities have budgets. the bookstores help to contribute to those budgets. if the bookstores make less money, then the university will have to find money elsewhere.....tuition does come to mind...............

We will have to agree to disagree. In your hypothitical circumstance where the bookstores actually lose money, the bookstores contribute very minimally to the operating budget to the university, the services offered by the auxillary services may (and I emphasize may) have to be reduced, but in the grand scheme of the UM System budget of $2.5 BILLION dollars per year, this amount is very, very small. It's been a good discussion, but I felt that the opposite views should be represented and that's why I commented. Gotta raise some ruckus up around these parts! :)

:) :) :) :) :) ((((((( i concur....good talking to you!!!)))))