Kanye West claims to be $53 million in debt, so he can relate to the average college student.

In a diversion from his consistently bizarre and often controversial stream of tweets, the notable hip-hop artist took to Twitter last week to vent his frustrations about the sky-high cost of higher education, specifically textbooks. Kanye detailed the account of a friend who is experiencing difficulty affording her son’s books for college to ensure her son has a better future — a message that resonates closely with the families of many students.

“Her son just got in a really good school and his textbooks are like $400 each,” he said. “His mom has to work 2 days just to afford 1 book for her son.”

The status quo of a college textbook costing more than a day’s work for a middle-class American is unacceptable. As students, it is a given that we have to buy books for our classes. But with the prices increasing 6 percent each year, according to the Government Accountability Office, far outpacing inflation and our ability to pay for them, this trend has only pointed to the stark reality that higher education in the United States has become a privilege for the elite.

While most conversations revolve around the ballooning cost of tuition, the bookstore is sometimes overlooked. While students have at least some degree of choice about where they go to school, despite the fact that even public universities are often unaffordable, they have no input in the price of their textbooks.

Following a pharmaceutical sales model, textbooks, like prescribed medicine, essentially make students “captive consumers,” forcing them to buy whatever book they are assigned. This dynamic has caused students to acquire their books in increasingly clever ways: renting, borrowing, sharing textbooks, buying e-books or older editions, and pirating PDFs online are all common practices. Still, being resourceful can only take one so far.

In the United States, five higher education textbook publishers dominate more than 85 percent of the market, according to the Government Accountability Office. Resembling an oligopoly, these conglomerates have immense control of prices and are especially tenacious in advancing their sales. Tactics such as “bundling,” by including additional materials such as CDs, access codes and workbooks, and the increasingly frequent barrage of new editions of books often indistinguishable from the last, reveal the nature in which publishers target our wallets.

Many hold the belief that faculty should be held responsible in offering their students low-cost options, as professors are the individuals determining the materials. Not only does this idea fail to address the real issue, but discounts the fact that many professors already take measures to promote affordability for their students.

Despite having a bookshelf full of complimentary trial textbooks from publishers, Qiu Wang, an assistant professor in Syracuse University’s School of Education, is cognizant of textbook prices when assigning material to his graduate students. Paying special attention to his student’s feedback, Wang makes a critical point.

“When textbooks are affordable, it benefits the student financially and academically,” said Wang.

A 2014 study by the United States Public Interest Research Group reinforces Wang’s idea, as it found that 65 percent of students have decided against buying a textbook due to its price tag. And, as a result, 94 percent of those who had passed on purchasing a book were concerned that doing so would negatively impact their grade.

With it being customary for students to withhold from buying books until they judge whether or not the cost is worth it upon attending their classes, it is obvious that affordability has become an impediment to academic success. The rising cost of textbooks isn’t just an economic hit — its burden extends far beyond the bookstore.

So while professors like Wang are genuinely benevolent in considering affordability when assigning materials, textbook prices are rising at an absurd pace and we can’t expect faculty to be held accountable for publishers that are much more cunning than we are thrifty.

The solution cannot be in savvier students or more sympathetic professors. With the elevated price of textbooks being a phenomenon that is uniquely American, it is obvious that publishers need to be held responsible under the law. American textbooks often cost twice the amount of their identical foreign editions, which may cause one to wonder why we are the targets of such profound inequity.

In response to this increasingly politicized issue, lawmakers have attempted to address the root problem of accessibility. House Democrats pushed for the 2013 Affordable College Textbook Act, which awards grants to universities to support and expand the use of open-source textbooks in order to achieve savings for students.

Open-source textbooks are books under a free license, so professors and students alike can access the content online and update it immediately when necessary. Open-source textbooks have a long way to go in terms of their widespread adoption on college campuses, but, as of now, they are the best viable alternative we have. However, it’s up to universities to integrate and promote this resource to even the academic playing field.

While there is no comprehensive panacea to the issue of higher education affordability with a job market that practically demands a college degree if one ever hopes of living a middle-class life, this is an issue that must be collaboratively addressed by universities and lawmakers alike.

Kanye West’s tweets are often indecipherable, but this time his message came loud and clear. Ending with a demand to lower the price of textbooks followed by the #2020 hashtag, an allusion to his speculated presidential bid, Yeezy may be devising the education plank of his campaign.

We may just have found the candidate who’s willing to spearhead for student causes. I wouldn’t be quick to doubt his sincerity. If this election cycle is any indicator, anything is possible.

Mia Tomasello is a junior environmental communications major at SUNY-ESF. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at atomasel@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @MiaTomasello1.

Published on February 23, 2016 at 12:39 am