With an important election just months away, congressional Democrats and Republicans agreed to pass the renewed Higher Education Act with President Bush expected to sign the legislation.

Colleges and universities all across America may soon have a big incentive to contain costs if President Bush signs a Congressional oversight bill as he is expected to do. The legislation is the renewal of the Higher Education Act, enacted by President Johnson as part of his Great Society initiative in 1965. The bill had expired in 2003, with temporary extensions passed until Congress could agree on its renewal.

Schools Will Be Required To Contain Costs

The bill is designed to put pressure on colleges and universities to contain costs by requiring them to give reasons for their increases. The Education Department would make this information available on its website, by tracking and listing the most expensive colleges each year, including those with the biggest tuition increases.

Additionally, the bill requires states to do their part to contain tuition increases at public colleges and universities to make sure that they’re adequately funded. The Higher Education Act would require that schools maintain their level of funding or risk losing certain federal funds. If states drop their funding below the average for the previous five academic years, then some monies could be withheld.

Twenty years ago, states contributed an average of 15% of the funding for colleges, a number that has decreased to about 11% resulting in huge tuition increases during that time. Even adjusted for inflation tuition has climbed 78% over the past two decades.

Textbooks, Private Student Loans Impacted

Additional consumer protections will also kick in and will include:

• Federal Pell Grant funding will double by 2014. In addition, grant money can be used year round instead of for the fall and spring semesters only.

• For schools who work with lending institutions that promote private student loans, the bill would require more transparency in the process, particularly showing what benefit the school gets by working with a particular lender.

• Schools are required to immediately notify students of an on-campus emergency, a mandate added as a response to the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings.

• Textbook publishers will now be required to provide pricing information to faculty and sell supplemental materials separately. The bill asks colleges to provide textbook prices in advance to students.

Other highlights of the bill include a “loan forgiveness” program where grads who enter “high needs” professions can have their college debt dismissed. These professions include careers in engineering and math, technology, science, and other fields.

(Source: Wall Street Journal)

Tags: college, college textbooks, Higher Education Act, private student loans, student loan, university, US Congress

According to Student PIRGs, the nonprofit public advocacy group behind the Make Textbooks Affordable website, college textbook costs have increased by four times the amount of inflation since 1994. Today, students are paying more than $900 annually for books which equals about 20% of the tuition cost at the average university. Worse, this number equals roughly half of the tuition cost for community college students who are often the least able to afford college.

What options do you, as a student, have when it comes to purchasing books? Although Student PIRGs is doing their part to shine the light on the cost, what practical steps can you take right now to save money on textbooks?

Well, that answer could depend on the willingness of your professors to cooperate, something that can vary from class to class. So let’s explore some ways you can shave ten, twenty, even fifty percent or more off of your annual textbook bill.

Four Steps To Saving Money On Textbooks

Buy Used – Most textbooks are updated annually, rendering the information in the books dated once the academic year has ended. These updates serve two purposes: to keep the textbook information current and to force students to buy the new book. Some professors insist that students use the newest edition, while others are more accommodating. If you can “get away” with an older edition, you could save 20 to 50 percent on costs. Another option is to avoid the bookstore and buy from a student who will sell the book to you directly and for less.

Do Without — If your “18th Century Foundations of Zoology” class lists four books for you to purchase, could it be that at least one textbook is optional? If so, consider not buying the book or perhaps sharing a copy with another student for the semester.

Shop Online - eBay, Craigslist, Amazon, and other online sites feature new and/or used textbooks for sale. Search around — even if someone must ship the book to you, it could still be cheaper than buying the used copy at the college bookstore.

Rent Your Book — One company has started a business where students can rent their textbook for the semester. Chegg rents over two million titles which you can find online and have shipped to your address. When the semester is over, you return the book to Chegg with their pre-paid label. You pay a rental fee and you do the environmentally responsible thing as no additional trees are cut down to make your books.

Up, Up, and Away!

Prices for textbooks will continue to rise, at least for the near term, or until students say, enough. You can’t wait for change to occur, but with the options shared above, real savings can be had the next time you shop for college textbooks.

Resources

Chegg

College Planning Tools

Financial Aid Charts

Student PIRGs

Tags: Chegg, college costs, college expenses, college textbooks, PIRG, student books, tuition