Did/does anyone else pay "rent" for textbooks in public school?

[raccoon]

I and my classmates did, late 1950's, most of 1960's, in a very poor county in SC.

Seems like the rent was about $1.00, more or less. Keep in mind $1.00 then went a heckuva lot further than it does now.

At the beginning of the school year, the rented textbook was checked out to the student, at the end of the year, s/he returned it (No refund).

[murielm99]

1. We paid more than that.

Some families had a very hard time. I think we paid about $15.00 per year for each student.

I remember that one year I had to pay a fee for damaging my geometry book. I was stunned. I thought it was just normal wear and tear. It was only fifty cents, but I had to pay it myself, and my dad was angry. Lots of people had to pay fines for book damage. It was arbitrary and a ripoff.

[raccoon]

2. Good gosh, what state/time period was this? nt

[murielm99]

21. Illinois, during the sixties.

I was taking geometry when Kennedy was assassinated. Like everyone else, I will never forget that day.

[raccoon]

30. I would've thought that in those days--the glory days of the Empire--Illinois, with so many union

jobs in industrial jobs--the schools would've been awash with cash. :shrug:

[sinkingfeeling]

3. We were required to buy my son's high school textbooks in Arizona in the late '80s.

[JitterbugPerfume]

4. I paid $3.50 per semester

in the 1950s ( my parents did) Most of those books were so old they were falling apart.

[ET Awful]

5. We did in the town in Arizona where I grew up (only in high school though)

I don't remember exactly how much it was, I seem to recall it being around $40 a year for everything (which included a PE uniform of T-shirt and shorts and a few other things). That would have been in the mid 1980's.

[WinkyDink]

15. Uniforms are not textbooks.

[ET Awful]

17. Oooooh, brilliantly spotted.

I said that we did have to pay for our textbooks and that the overall fee also included the uniform.

Of course, you were just being contrary, not admitting that you didn't actually read my post right?

[Lucian]

6. They finally started doing that at my college last fall.

Of course, none of my texts this semester were allowed to be rented. :eyes:

[AngryOldDem]

7. For my kids it costs altogether a couple of hundred bucks.

No kidding. Back in the day, with me, texts were handed out at the start of the school year and were handed back in at the end. I don't recall my folks ever sending big amounts of money to school with me -- typically they were nominal fees for field trips and parties and such.

[State the Obvious]

8. Yes....and I remember going through each book before turning it in....

....to make sure that there were not any pencil marks or notations inside, so I would not have to pay an extra (small) fee for book damage. We were expected to treat whatever we borrowed with respect. (South suburban Chicago)

[Earth_First]

9. All my daughter's textbooks are online...

I believe she has one physical textbook.

[upi402]

22. Mine too

And then the site is down, access denied, etc.


What a mess. And w're in a famously good school district. Yeah right... I wonder what the bad ones are like.

[girl gone mad]

28. The wave of the future.

No resales or re-use. One license per student, time restricted.

I still have several of my college textbooks and I use them all the time. My professors chose well.

[Still Sensible]

10. When I was in school they had a bullshit

racket where students had to pay top dollar for new and used textbooks from the "bookstore" and then sell them back to them at the end of the year for 10 to 20 cents on the dollar...

[WinkyDink]

12. High school?

[Occulus]

16. You were mistaken. That was college prep.

ba-dah-tss

:D

[NoPasaran]

11. In Virginia in the 1960s we had to buy our textbooks

We could sell them back at the end of the school year unless they were being replaced with a new edition.

[WinkyDink]

14. Are you speaking of a public school system, K-12?

[NoPasaran]

18. Yes, public schools

Prince George County, my understanding was that was just the way it was in Virginia at that time.

[WinkyDink]

13. HELLO??!? IT IS ILLEGAL. "FREE and PUBLIC education." Man, some of you have been really taken.

I am speaking of REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS, not sports equipment/uniforms, band instruments, perishable elective-art supplies, or field trips.

[Maru Kitteh]

26. It must not be illegal, or it wouldn't be so common.

It shouldn't be that way, but it apparently is.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. It happens all over the country. I don't get it.

Free means free. Yet many school districts in the country have a book fee or some other fee system that charges students for books.

I know a guy here in Kansas challenged the policy in his kid's district a few years ago but I never did hear what happened. Just saw an article in the local paper that he had filed a lawsuit.

I complained about my kid's school doing this and finally just refused to pay the bill. Nothing happened. He still got his books. :)

[salin]

31. Indiana has a text book rental fee.

had it when I was a kids, and still has it.

[Maru Kitteh]

19. No - but we did have to buy our book if we lost it. We checked them out at the beginning

of the year. At the end, if your textbook# didn't match the one you had checked out, or you didn't have one to turn in - you were charged the price of the book.

[Horse with no Name]

20. Yes. In the 1970's in Arizona

I vaguely remember it being $15-20 for all of the books, but you got partial credit back when you returned them in good repair.

[bigwillq]

23. No (nt)

[delightfulstar]

24. Not in our district...

My oldest is in the 7th grade, and the only thing we've had to pay any fees for is sports.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. Private school. We had to buy ours.

[trayfoot]

29. Yes, it still exists in my system - much more than $1.00.