this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2026
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Sometimes? I went to an R1 where many of the professors wrote the book on their respective subject, so using an other text for their own teaching may have actually downgraded the experience. Even then it didn't happen frequently. I also knew one prof who used his own book. You may be right about the nefarious behavior for some publishers, but he was pretty open about his cut and it was shockingly small per book.
I was actually speaking more to the funding of education in general, which was one of parent's main points (texts on top of the exorbitant costs).
That wasn't an issue prior to the Reagan administration who led the charge to refund education decades ago, and successfully pushed most of the states to abandoning our public assistance (and putting the burden largely on the individuals and their families).
Text prices are too high, and have been for many years. That isn't as much the universities as it is the publishers, bookstores, and other nefarious entities. Universities largely don't set book prices, they just pass them on to the students. There really isn't much choice.
Yeah, and some profs are really good about it, even if they wrote the textbook. Like a lot of my profs would talk about how it was possible to photocopy the course notes package pages, that there were ways to get textbooks without paying for them or even offered to send a copy of the pdf master to anyone who asked because writing the textbook wasn't intended to gouge students.
But I've heard the opposite story, too, where the prof wrote a textbook that was barely even used but added it to the required texts list. Profs in my program weren't that bad, but I did see some of the textbook publisher response to those kinds of profs, where they'd have a website and buying the textbook was really about buying a code to sign up for the site. Luckily, most of those didn't use the site for real assignments, so it still wasn't mandatory but the rent seeking was obvious.
But yeah, wish it was similar to Europe in the Americas. Canada might be a bit better off, though I might just be saying this as someone who went into a well-paying career and actually managed to pay off my student debt pretty quickly. Government forgave some of the student debt I had through them when I graduated (actually a decent chunk of it) and this even happened automatically (was a very pleasant surprise).
But I wish the public saw how increased access to education helps improve things for everyone, even if you don't get educated directly (though I'd support a system that gave universal access to education so no one is being completely denied, though some gating based on ability would help avoid waste time).
That would be wonderful, but the public perception is a hindrance (like high speed rail, medicine access, etc.).
The US is wildly propagandized against our own best interests.
Yeah, I'll change my wish to I wish people weren't so susceptible to propaganda, especially the really shallow stuff that falls apart the moment you stop and think about whether it really makes sense (like the old "they hate our freedom" argument).
But then again, if the simple stuff didn't work, then it would just get more sophisticated and maybe the really dumb propaganda is required to recognize its other forms.
I don't think funding is the problem. Colleges receive alot of money, but I feels like the resources are spent on people that probably shouldn't be in school.
I'm a pretty smart dude, but the fact that I qualified for a full scholarship with housing in 7th grade says alot about the state of our education system. If a teacher is teaching a hundred students that probably aren't benefiting from it, their time and resources are spread thin.
....I don't think it was possible to fail most of my classes as long as I showed up.
Ok, but in this case you are incorrect. The whole "spending money poorly" thing doesn't match up to the financial reality of most schools, in particular the many small ones. I've spent a good portion of my career in higher ed (among other things) administering my own paltry budget.
And your poor experiences aside, I promise you that what you are describing would work in any program I've administered unless the 7th grader was already capable of college level work. You just make it sound like you went to a rather low quality school.
Go back to pre-Regan days. The state paid for around 90% or so (depending) on the coat of education.
By the 2000s or so that number dropped to a paltry amount (something more like 15%).
My parents' generation could go to a state school and pay off their entire bill for a year doing a few weeks of summer work. Now people rack up years worth of debt.
The financial reality is educating people is expensive. Just hiring enough competent professors and staff for a small university is potentially a rather significant number of millions annually. We need to go back to funding it socially rather than putting the burden on the individual.