BOSTON — Lawmakers are seeking to understand how electronic textbooks are used as college students are increasingly relying on online coursework and struggling to afford their materials.
A Rep. Mindy Domb resolve (H 559) would create a commission to assess the effects of electronic textbooks on students, with a focus on benefits, costs, resale limits, the single-user access model and contracts that electronic textbook producers have with colleges and universities, including any quotas an institution or students must meet. The commission would have 18 months after the bill has passed to file a report.
“This is an emerging issue,” Domb, D-Amherst, said Wednesday while testifying in support of her bill during a Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure hearing.
She said student budgets are hampered by textbook costs. In order to afford books and course materials, 11% of students reported skipping meals and 25% said they worked extra hours, according to a 2024 report by the Education Data Initiative. Also, 65% of students skipped buying textbooks because they were too expensive.
“This burden on college students is caused by a broken textbook market, especially when a class requires the purchasing of online materials to access homework and tests,” Luke Van Horn, a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said during the hearing.
Van Horn said he spent $436.45 on course materials this year, much of which is online and includes access codes to materials that expire at the end of a semester.
Committee co-chair Sen. Pavel Payano said the bill stuck out to him among other bills discussed during the hearing because he remembers electronic textbooks were beginning to emerge when he was in school.
“It affects a lot of folks because if you’re spending $75 to $100 per book, and if you’re taking five classes, that’s 500 bucks, right there,” Payano said. “It’s one we’ll definitely be looking into more.”
Access codes prevent students from referring back to their old coursework or reselling materials to recoup some of their costs, Domb said, while sitting in front of a stack of her old college textbooks.
“Sometimes I want to look back at something, I want to remember, something that I read as part of the learning process as an adult — It continues right? It doesn’t just stop as you get a degree,” Domb said.
In Amherst, which has three higher education institutions, Domb said students would usually go to bookstores at the start of the semester, buy a single book and work out how to share the material.
But as digital resources have become more widespread, colleges and universities have been entering into contracts with electronic textbook producers that tack on the price of course materials to student tuition bills. Students may opt out of these contracts, but many aren’t aware of how to and they may not have the choice if curricula require content from the electronic textbooks, Domb said. The agreements often include monetary incentives, or quota-based savings to encourage colleges and universities to promote the electronic materials.
As a result of the agreements — which are promoted as a way to reduce student costs — faculty may be less likely to use free online materials, further limiting student savings and creating a conflict of interest between students and an institution’s finances, Domb said.
Domb’s bill has bipartisan support, with Minority Leader Sen. Bruce Tarr as a cosponsor.