Thread: Feds to Meddle with College Textbooks

According to the beginning of this recent act (PDF link below), a new fed. bureaucracy is being created to inspect college textbooks to "make them more affordable". It also introduces the concept of "bundling" materials together as one textbook like subprime mortgages were!

Monday, March 29,2010

Feds to Meddle with College Textbooks [Candace de Russy]

On March 28, in response to an Los Angeles Times editorial, Donald J. Boudreaux, a professor of economics at George Mason University, posted the following important missive at Cafe Hayek:

You eloquently explain that K-12 textbooks are infected with intellectual stupor because statewide adoption of textbooks, especially by California and Texas, compels publishers to satisfy the lowest common denominator of the many vocal interests who are eager to exhibit faux outrage at any perceived slight to their pet cause or conviction ("Textbook cases," March 28).

So I invite you to study the Federal Textbook Act, signed by Pres. Obama last August. This legislation looks to be a first step toward federal oversight of the contents of college textbooks. Most ominous is the requirement that publishers provide to every faculty member considering a textbook “A description of the substantial content revisions made between the current edition of the college textbook or supplemental material and the [three] previous editions, if any.â€

Well maybe if college professors weren't so cozy with textbook salesmen we wouldn't be seeing this crap. I don't support Obama meddling in anything, but it's hard to deny that this action is a classic reaction to prior over the top abuses.