While escalating textbook prices have inspired several state governments to pass legislation aimed at reining in spiraling costs, the Maryland General Assembly has continued to stall bills that would could help alleviate the burden of book-buying.
A wave of legislation aimed at bills that offer solutions for high-priced textbooks, including tax-free options, adding book expenses to tuition prices and forcing professors to list required course materials earlier have been bounced around the assembly since the late '90s. But over the course of the decade, progress has been slow.
The current legislature is set to pass a bill that would form a task force to study textbook prices, marking the first successful and concerted effort to tackle the issue in its 10-year history within the legislature. The bill, introduced by Del. Craig Rice (D-Montgomery), has already received support from the House and was first presented to senators yesterday.
Legislators attributed their traditional reluctance to the high expected cost of supporting bills that offer tax breaks for book-buyers.
Del. Robert McKee (R-Washington) has been monitoring textbook legislation since he introduced one of the original tax-free textbook bills in 1998. As a member of the House Ways and Means committee, McKee and his colleagues often focus on the bill's price tag more than on its content, he said.
McKee added that the committee's chair told members that any bills that cost the state more than $250,000 don't usually pass.
"We haven't been able to come to a consensus based on a cost," McKee said. "Unfortunately, what we look at is the dollars and cents of the bill."
McKee's 1998 tax-free textbook bill would have cost the state $5.3 million, according to the general assembly's website, and the rising cost of textbooks coupled with an increasing number of college students would make current financial obligations to the state considerably larger.
Less costly bills have struggled to gain momentum as well. One such bill was withdrawn last week and another is likely to die this week in committee.
Sen. Katherine Klausmeier (D-Baltimore County) proposed a bill in January banning professors from receiving publisher incentives and mandating universities release book lists earlier, but she is pessimistic about the bill's future in the legislature.
"Mine was very specific, and I think there's just so many parts to selling books at the colleges and universities," Klausmeier said of the bill.
Many other states have already adopted legislation to help alleviate the burden of high book prices. The Virginia legislature adopted legislation similar to Klausmeier's last session, while legislators in Washington state passed a law requiring professors to consider low-cost alternative. A Connecticut law passed in 2006 stipulates that publishers provide textbook prices and a revision history to professors.
Luke Swarthout, Maryland Public Interest Research Group's higher education advocate, said because regulating publishers' actions is nearly impossible, legislators must look to legislation that monitors the habits of university faculty, which he worries is an inadequate solution to the problem.
"To get to the heart of the problem requires pressure on the publishers to change their abusive practices," Swarthout said.
The Association of American Publishers could not be reached for comment by press time yesterday.
Arkansas Sen. Sue Madison (D), who has introduced several successful textbook bills this legislative session, said publishers are the biggest obstacle.
"I can't tell you how strongly the textbook publishers oppose these bills," Madison said. "I can understand why - it's just in every other facet of American life. We are telling people to reuse, recycle, and we are trying not to be a throw-away society."
