The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Bellevue College more than $293,000 to pilot a new strategy for keeping the doors to higher education open wide: offset rising tuition costs by enabling students not to buy but rent, at a 65 percent savings, all their textbooks and course materials.
The savings on books, in combination with tuition and fees, produce a net savings of 13 percent off students’ total educational expenses.
The benefits of the pilot program will be offered first to those students who face greatest financial need, with 250 students expected to be served annually.
The financial model on which the program is built, however, is expected to prove sufficiently strong to support expansion of the program over time, with the hope that ultimately it can serve all students.
The model was first tested in 2005, when Bellevue College launched one of the first college textbook-rental programs in the nation.
That program, which achieved financial self-sufficiency within the first year and produced sufficient revenue to allow expansion, quickly became the model for similar programs at five other community colleges in Washington.
However, the initial project covered only the most frequently assigned texts, limiting the rental list to a total of 10 titles – not enough to make a serious dent in the overall costs of college for any one student.
The two-year Department of Education grant, awarded through its Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education, will provide seed money to test extension of the program to all content materials for all classes in a student’s program.
Most of the $293,699 in grant funds will be used to purchase textbooks and other materials for the initial rental inventory. Currently, state policy prevents Washington’s community colleges from renting course materials purchased with state funds.
“Textbook prices have been rising at rising at twice the rate of inflation for at least 20 years,” said Rachel Solemsaas, vice president-administrative services for Bellevue College. “It’s not uncommon these days for students to face textbook bills approaching $1,000 every year, and that’s a huge barrier for low-income students.
The project will be launched in January 2010 and is expected to be fully operational by Fall Quarter 2010.
