Interesting Text Book Cartoon

Our son Joe saw this cartoon last week and brought it to our attention. No, we don't think it's true, but it sure seems like someone is running a racket when it comes to college text books.

This week the board of regents in Arizona announced that our state universities will probably be increasing tuition about 18 percent this year, while the universities will need to cut staff pay and / or positions. All of this because our state is experiencing an extreme budget crisis due to the recession.

The recessions is not over yet!

All the while, textbook companies are still finding ways to squeeze blood out of an turnip by creating special editions for individual colleges, or moving content from one chapter to another and calling it a new edition.  All in the name of a better education.

The best ways we've found to control college costs is to start our kids at a community college when they are in high school. Class costs are about half of what the university charges. They keep their grades up by taking just a couple of classes each semester and easily qualify for scholarships when they graduate high school. We also research the best teachers on RateMyProfessors.com and buy used text books whenever we can from ebay, half.com and Amazon. If we can't find the most recent edition inexpensively, the kids ask their professors if it is absolutely necessary to have the latest edition. Most times we can get by with the less expensive option.

Let's fight this text book scam! Complain to your local colleges and universities and let's see if we can put some pressure on these unscrupulous publishers!