July 20, 2007

Textbook Publishers Tested on Capitol Hill

By LAUREN SMITH

Congressional staff members pelted publishing-company officials with questions about the high costs of college textbooks during a briefing on Capitol Hill last week and said that the publishers did not have students' best interests in mind.

But the publishers said they offer professors hundreds of books to choose from for a specific subject, varying in cost from $30 to upwards of $100. In some cases, they said, they even let professors purchase certain chapters of a book that will not