| The problems with textbooks (k-12 and college) fall at the feet of government. First the effect, then the cause, and finally the solution. The effect is that textbooks are too expensive, they are underused, they are of low quality, they have slanted ideology, and they are agenda driven. |  |
 LINKED | The cause is the government laws and regulations. The government’s heavy hand in education drives out free enterprise benefits. The government mandates that people attain a college degree and a license before practicing various trades. This mandate forces a person wanting to be a professional to attend and pass through a college regulated by the government. These mandates of a degree give universities monopolistic powers to charge extra. Accreditation and Licensing boards also hold great power since people have to achieve their requirements to practice their trade. Textbook corporations regularly go to these licensing boards to explain why the purchase of their product should be made mandatory before one can attain a degree, thus a license. |
| The solution is liberty. Allowing competitive regulatory agencies to determine licensing requirements under their agency and other CRA’s determining their requirements brings competition. With many different options to attain a license; the cost will come down through the free market. The free market must also attract people by giving high-quality education. Thus the quality would increase. Standards would increase as buyers of the professional services choose higher-rated services. |  LINKED |
 | Many students go through their classes with barely opening their required textbooks. Often the teacher decides to use other teaching materials. However, the textbook publishers lobby for their books to be mandatory. Special interest groups use textbooks as a way to inculcate their worldview. Many teachers are forced to teach around textbooks, and other teachers embrace the special interest point of view. |
| Socialism always yields lower quality. Textbook publishers only need the quality of books to convince a few bureaucrats; whereas, under free enterprise, many publishers must compete to serve many schools under many educational business models. It is a known fact that government buyers/deciders pay/choose more than people in the free enterprise system. |  |
 | When government bureaucrats decide what books everyone must read, it is a form of book-burning. Book burning just eliminates a small percentage of books; whereas, mandated books monopolize a students time with just a few books the bureaucrats prefer. |
| The cost of a college or university to become an accredited law school is tremendous. Law schools still need highly expensive physical books in their law library after the world went digital. Many professional requirements have thrown their mandates around jobs that are very tangential such as mandates for hair braiders to go through cosmetology school when that school does not even teach braiding. These are just two of the thousands of examples of government pushing up prices. |  |
