Bill: tax free textbooks

Every semester, college students from across the country have a unified complaint: The textbooks prices are ridiculously expensive. The whining finally got noticed and the government is doing something about it.
The Georgia House Legislature is currently deciding the fate of House Bill 141. If passed, HB 141 will eliminate sales tax on textbooks for college students. Georgia will join South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, Missouri, Michigan, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and North Dakota in states who are already enforcing this. There is also pending legislation in the states of Maryland and New Jersey and more states are considering it.
Sara Johnson, a GCSU senior political science and history major and former SGA president, has been interning at the Georgia State Capitol under the Chairman of the Higher Education Committee of the House of Representatives.
“I’ve been doing research and helping raise awareness and support for this Bill,” Johnson said. “It’s important for students to know that they can have impact on the phenomenon of escalating textbook prices and that they have an active voice to do something about it.”
The price of college books has tripled since 1986. In a recent article from CNN, a four-year college student would spend an average about $900 on books and supplies per school year.
“I paid $200 for a chemistry book once,” Johnson said. “A friend of mine paid $350 for an anatomy book, which for a college student is really ridiculously high.”
Publishers in part have been opposed to this bill because it does not take into account the high cost of publishing textbooks, not to mention the fact that not enough are sold because many are made available on the resale market.
“I’ve paid over $400 in book fees alone for a semester,” said Ashley Whiteside, a junior biology major. “I feel that Biology majors especially feel the rising cost of books because our books seem to cost more.”
Even though the bill sounds promising, some students are still unsure whether or not eliminating sales tax would actually help.
“My main concern is I still have to buy the textbooks regardless of what tax policy is,” said Matt Anderson, a junior psychology major. “I’ve hardly bought any used books this semester because they seem to come up with new editions that we have to buy anyway.”
In an interview with CNN, Danny Kantz, a campus organizer for the California Public Research Interest Group, reflected the attitude that many students have towards the frequent updates and add-ons to textbooks.
“Certainly there are some subjects with a legitimate need for a new textbook every couple of years because the content changes so rapidly,” Kantz said. But, “calculus hasn’t changed in 300 years, so there’s no need for a new edition of a textbook every couple of years.”
Either way, students can expect to benefit from the bill, should it pass.
“That’s money that my parents are saving,” Whiteside said. “It’s awesome.”
Johnson said that even if the bill is not passed right away it will still help students because it will help the committee come up with other options to help students such as helping faculty explore cheaper alternatives.
To show support for this bill, contact your local state representative.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 16 2007. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry