College Textbook rant...

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

My daughter, a freshman this year, we spent $600 1st semester. This semester we spent $250, amazon.com has great buys for used and near new books. If we went the book store route again this semester we would have spend another $600!

As far as selling the books back, they give u pennies on the $, as others have said a total rip off. But then again it was the same way 27 yrs ago when I was in college. it just hurts more when u have to write the check!

 

[Chuck52]

College bookstores do kind of remind me of the refreshment stands in movie theaters. They often have captive audiences with few other choices.

Chuck

 

[KubotaSteve]

I never went to college and I make 10 times what my Dad made.

Before anyone goes ballistic, college is the best investment in life that anyone can make. There's companies that won't hire you because you don't have a degree. But, they'll hire the next person that does, and don't know diddly squat.

I guess high tech has changed a lot of things over the years.

Bill Gates didn't go to college and if memory serves me correct, he quit high school too! But that is not the norm.
As far as the books, we had a student hangout on campus with a bulletin board and people would list their books there complete with study notes. For example, if you bought a book for $100 and the bookstore only offered you $50 back, the student could post his book marked up and with notes for $70 or $80. I hated getting clean books. I always wanted the ones that were all ready marked up with highlighting and notes.

 

[moeh1]

If you Google something like college textbooks, you will find a large number of online used books. Just went thru that with my child for the spring semester. Certainly better than the college bookstore's used prices.

 

[BillyP]

Interesting link, Chris. Just some trivia for the youngsters who haven't thought about the changes. I started work for the U.S. Post Office as a temporary part time letter carrier in 1957 for $1.88 an hour. In 1959, I went to work for the Post Office full time as a clerk for $2.00 an hour, and in March of 1964, I was working an evening shift, so part of my hours included a 10% night differential and I was making $501 a month when I resigned, mostly due to boredom, and took a big pay cut to become a police officer for $370 a month.

Bird, your pension has done extremely well against inflation. By the calculator 370 bucks in 1965 would mean 2,368 in 2006 and you beat that by 50%. Of course you could look at it a million different ways but it seems you done pretty good to me

 

[Bird]

Bird, your pension has done extremely well against inflation. By the calculator 370 bucks in 1965 would mean 2,368 in 2006 and you beat that by 50%. Of course you could look at it a million different ways but it seems you done pretty good to me

Yes, Billy, as with a number of government jobs, they keep you because of the retirement plan instead of paying a good salary. But of course that $370 was just the "starting" pay. We got a $10 a month pay raise every 3 months the first year. Then most years, the city council granted all city employees some cost of living increases. And of course I worked for promotions for the higher salary and pension. The City of Dallas paid a flat $100 a month more for a college degree or I'd have probably never gone back to school and got mine. And of course I was paying 12.5% of my pay into the pension plan when I was working.

 

[BillyP]

Yes, Billy, as with a number of government jobs, they keep you because of the retirement plan instead of paying a good salary. But of course that $370 was just the "starting" pay. We got a $10 a month pay raise every 3 months the first year. Then most years, the city council granted all city employees some cost of living increases. And of course I worked for promotions for the higher salary and pension. The City of Dallas paid a flat $100 a month more for a college degree or I'd have probably never gone back to school and got mine. And of course I was paying 12.5% of my pay into the pension plan when I was working.

Bird, your last sentence is where most people go wrong, especially the ones just starting out. If the company or whatever has a retirement plan, put all you think you can afford plus 10%. It'll hurt for a month or two but then you won't miss it.

Even if you can't afford the extra, at least put in what the company will match. That's just free money, any way you look at it. If you stick around long enough to be vested.

What really gets me is the ones that gripe about what they make. For instance teachers, and I know I'll get a lot of flack over this but the truth is the truth. Every time you read the paper theirs something about teachers wanting, needing or demanding a pay raise. That they've been underpaid forever. That could be true but they knew it before they decided to be teachers?

 

[Bird]

Billy, I'll agree that it is true that it seems teacher are always looking for a raise (isn't everyone?), and I do believe that our school taxes are way too high. However, I'm one of those who feels that the schools waste far too much money on extra curricular activities, especially sports, and administrative jobs, and pay teachers too little. I think we have too few really good teachers because of the low pay. I think during my years in school I saw some of the best, and some of the worst, school teachers in the business. I guess everyone has different view points, but I know many people have told me they could never be a police officer. Well, I could never be a school teacher. Those folks have a tough job, and if they're good at it, they deserve every penny they're getting.

But I also agree with you that they knew what it paid when they started, so I do not believe in unions striking, work slow downs, blue flu, etc. In other words, I think it applies to everyone, not just teachers.

 

[EddieWalker]

When the football coach makes six figures and the math teacher makes $30,000 a year, there's a problem. I don't know if this is how it is all over Texas, but it's been a real shock to me here in East Texas.

Another one that really amazed me was the power to raise taxes the schools and Junior College has. They seem to be able to do this at will. Luckily the last time the Junior College did this, it was discovered that they had over 2 million dollars in there budget that they hadn't spent from the previous year. OOOPS. Seems they raised taxes when they didn't need to as a just in case tactic. They got caught, got in trouble, and had to refund money to everyone who paid the extra tax. I got back almost $200!!!!

Eddie

 

[Bird]

I don't know if this is how it is all over Texas, but it's been a real shock to me here in East Texas.

Yep, Eddie, that's the normal situation in Texas. And in my grandson's high school, they have fifteen coaches for one high school. You can imagine what that costs the taxpayers. And it's been that way for many years. About 30 years ago, the school district where our daughters were in school wanted to float a bond issue that was a really big one; considerably bigger than needed at the time, but they said they expected the area to continue to grow and the money would only be used for building "classrooms" and the extra large size of the bond issue would prevent them needing another one for many years. OK, we passed it. Then a couple of years later, they decided to use the money to build a really fancy football stadium and a natatorium. Since all the paperwork said the money was for classrooms, a few folks objected to the plan. So they decided to build two classrooms under the stands to get around that little problem. There was even a lawsuit filed to stop the stadium, but the judge decided with the sports fans (judges are elected in Texas, you know). They had a public hearing on the issue and it appeared to me that the crowd was about evenly split, for and against the fancy stadium. But those who spoke in favor of the stadium were allowed to speak, then cheered. Those who tried to speak against the stadium were shouted down by the rowdy sports fans. They also assured the crowd that building the stadium would not affect our school taxes. But the next year, my school taxes went up 25%!