You know the feeling of holding an entire stack of last quarter’s books while you stand in line at the campus book store only to find that you be getting nothing near what you paid for them just months ago? Despite being the same bookstore where the book was originally purchased, many students have had to cut their losses and just sell their books anyway just to get a measly amount of pocket change to support their next meal or make their next car payment.

To hear your professor emphasize the importance of having the newest edition of their required text that’s priced ridiculously high causes financial hardship for a lot of college students. There are even instances when students are required to buy a certain textbook that’s only available at the campus store for a shockingly high price.

Textbook publishing companies have monopolized the campus bookstore business. With no competition in the textbook industry, these publishing companies have been profiting billions of dollars by making unnoticeable slight edits to their textbooks and then requiring students to purchase the latest available edition.

After decades of taking advantage of universities across the nation, the textbook publishing companies are now required to inform students and instructors of the edits made to new textbook editions.

Senate Bill 1539 requires publishing companies to post the edits made to their newer editions online for students and instructors to see what it is that’s different. This will lead to more informed decisions when universities and students are purchasing textbooks. Publishers have inflated their prices by 12 to 20 percent.

Then, once these “newly revised” textbooks are ordered at a university, the campus bookstore further inflates the prices by 25 to 43 percent, according to the senate website.

With this new bill passed by Gov. Jerry Brown, instructors will have the opportunity to make an educated decision about what they will require students to purchase. They are given the power to weigh their options and protect their students from buying into a scam.

With this bill implemented, students can look forward to having better options when purchasing required textbooks. It’s a shame that this legislation is just making way into our universities as I’m at the twilight of my college days, however, I’m thrilled that something is being done about this reoccurring problem.

In a world where politicians are perceived as liars, and the corporate world is looked at like Enron, students need the university to be a place that still maintains integrity.

With textbook publishing companies offering kick-backs to instructors that require their textbooks, we have discovered the corruption at the university level.

With this bill, students and instructors can determine just how important it is for them to have the latest edition by having access to the information changed. This will increase the buyback prices for students as the editions won’t be changing so rapidly from year to year and the books they invested in can actually hold their value for longer.

I enjoy my education and the resources the books provide, but I can definitely do so without the thousands in credit card debt I get every year from them.