{"id":15059,"date":"2017-04-10T10:14:03","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T15:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=15059"},"modified":"2017-06-26T10:03:23","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T15:03:23","slug":"textbook-cost-cap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2017\/04\/10\/textbook-cost-cap\/","title":{"rendered":"Textbook cost cap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colleges could be seeing a rise in tuition and a decrease in textbooks costs. Governor John Kasich\u2019s budget bill introduced a built in tuition cost of $300 per year to cover the price of textbooks.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Jeff Robinson, the Director of Communication at the Ohio Board of Higher Education, the budget bill pushes colleges to try and explore ways that they can lessen the cost of textbooks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSince 1976, textbook costs have increased at more than triple the rate of inflation, so it is imperative that our colleges and universities explore ways to offer less expensive textbook options for students in an effort to lower the overall cost of their education,\u201d Robinson said.<\/span><\/p>\n

President of Sinclair, Steven Johnson, spoke out against the textbook provision in a testimony to the House Finance Subcommittee on Higher Education. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA continued disinvestment in Ohio\u2019s community colleges, such as continued tuition caps and an unexpected and unbudgeted and unfunded textbook mandate inherently harms the students we are seeking to help. When colleges like mine have fewer resources, students suffer because we have less capability to provide the individualized service that they need,\u201d Johnson stated in his prepared testimony.<\/span><\/p>\n

The proposal is still in its early phases, meaning that a lot could happen to shift the bill and its provisions, but Robinson said the important part is find ways for students to pay less.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSince this is a new proposal in the state budget that is currently making its way through the legislature, it is too early to say what effect this plan would have on individual campuses,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it does encourage our public colleges and universities to find ways to deliver textbooks to students at a lower cost, so in that regard, the campuses themselves can directly impact that cost.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sinclair is not the only school who opposes the textbook cap. Ohio State University President Michael Drake also testified to the House committee saying that their college is already working on ways to lower the costs of textbooks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Robinson stated that the budget bill would cut textbook costs in half and it would help students get all of their books at a reasonable price.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposal would cut textbook costs in half for the average student, and in some cases, students would lower their textbook costs by more than half. It is another way to reduce the overall cost of higher education for students, and it also allows students to have all of their textbooks at the time classes begin,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Colleges would have to cover textbook costs so that the student doesn\u2019t have to pay more than $300 on a textbook. Each public college may be required to pay half of a student\u2019s textbook costs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur research shows that textbooks cost the average student $600 per year. Our budget proposal asks colleges and universities to cover the cost of textbooks, but gives them the ability to add up to $300 to a student\u2019s tuition bill to help recoup some of those costs,\u201d Robinson said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Kasich has long made college affordability one of his top priorities. While Ohio has been among the nation\u2019s leaders in holding down the cost of college tuition over the last several years, there is also a need to address the cost of textbooks,\u201d Robinson said.<\/span><\/p>\n

State Representative Rick Perales of Beavercreek said that after hearing the testimony from the colleges, it is likely that the provision would be removed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kasich\u2019s budget bill, which must be finished and passed by July 1, would also increase funding for higher education, freeze tuition, general fees and special fees for two years and would allow community colleges to offer bachelor degrees in areas where state universities don\u2019t offer specialized degree programs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Laina Yost<\/strong>
\nManaging Editor<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colleges could be seeing a rise in tuition and a decrease in textbooks costs. Governor John Kasich\u2019s budget bill introduced a built in tuition cost of $300 per year to cover the price of textbooks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10290,"featured_media":15031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[1418,1921,576,176,2005,1920,1919],"class_list":["post-15059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-campus-life","tag-costs","tag-financial","tag-headlines","tag-laina-yost","tag-prices","tag-textbook"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Textbook1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-3UT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15059"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15572,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15059\/revisions\/15572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}