Dear Editors,
My name is Keana Eslampour, and I am a 19-year-old student attending Diablo Valley College. I value my education immensely; unfortunately, I am facing an issue. Many students, including myself, face financial problems that deter us from succeeding academically due to high-cost textbooks, resulting in many of us going through a course without the proper material.
As stated by CalMatters, $650 million was put aside for textbook cost coverage and necessities for aid after COVID-19 for California community colleges by our California lawmakers. Yet, the money distributed to schools has used less than 20 percent of the funds given due to uncertainty of our state’s budget, but other solutions can be made.
According to the Diablo Valley Colleges website, the cost of a textbook is almost equivalent to enrolling in a course, being around $115 and the textbook being $86.40. There are over 28,000 students at Diablo Valley College, and it is time to tackle this problem by being able to compensate students with online accessible textbooks or borrowed textbooks given by the school to help the burden of low-income students and give them an advantage in educational opportunities.
As the Inquirer of Diablo Valley College, I strongly encourage you to emphasize alternative options for textbooks required within courses and find solutions that do not hinder a student’s education, including my own desire for success and quality education.
Sincerely,
Keana Eslampour
Amye • Mar 3, 2024 at 5:18 pm
Thank you, Keana, for bringing up this important topic. Like you, I am a struggling student who finds it difficult to afford textbooks. In one of my classes, I feel like my instructor is pushing his own authored book, which costs around $130 in the bookstore, even though he has already posted the digital materials for us to download. He has also warned us that he will stop posting the digital materials soon, so we have to buy the book.
I don’t mean to digress on the topic, so if there are funds earmarked for community college textbooks, why isn’t the process faster? Are the bureaucrats waiting for students to fail or drop out because they can’t afford the textbooks? If the red tape is too thick, why not use OpenStax books?