Colleges fight high prices

From StarTribune Minneapolis: Textbook economics: Colleges fight high prices

"Until this year, University of Minnesota students taking BioC-3021, a biochemistry class, paid $148 for a single, one-semester textbook.

Then professors got smart.

The faculty agreed on five biochemistry books that would work and, for the first time, asked publishers for bids. They'd take the book that came in the lowest, they said.

As a result, students now have a different textbook -- for $86.

Campuses across the state are taking new, aggressive action to curb textbook prices, a cost often overshadowed by climbing tuition but still likely to add to student debt."

In my book $86 is still too much to be asking students to pay for a textbook.