Textbook affordability is a major concern for students, especially those paying their own way through school. Even at schools where the student government owns the campus bookstore, it is still a major issue due to far-too-frequent new editions, publisher prices, and a lack of alternatives.
The state PIRGs have a major campaign on textbook affordability.
One of the amendments to ![[WWW]](http://wikispot.org/wiki/eggheadbeta/img/sycamore-www.png){kind=small}
H.R. 4137 requires textbook publishers to disclose information about pricing and when new editions are planned. However, the Senate version, passed earlier, did not have this language. You may want to write someone on the Education and Labor Committee or HELP Committee to see that this makes it past the conference committee.
There have also been efforts to create open textbooks, analagous to open source software. There's some good information about this from the Hewlett Foundation.
