Editor’s Be aware: This text was written for Mosaic, an impartial journalism coaching program for highschool college students who report and {photograph} tales underneath the steerage {of professional} journalists.
As a highschool scholar in Union Metropolis, I’ve been lucky sufficient to have the ability to take faculty courses. Considered one of my first surprises was {that a} faculty textbook that was required for a course was costlier than the registration payment for the course.
Having to buy textbooks was new to me. Center and excessive faculties offered us with textbooks freed from cost. As soon as our yr ended we might return them, after which the identical copies can be used for subsequent yr’s college students. Nonetheless, with faculty courses, I’d purchase the textbook, use it for 8 to 12 weeks, after which use it as a big paper weight. Seeing that textbook go to waste felt very disheartening.
There’s a greater method. Many faculties and courses as we speak are testing ZTC, or zero textbook price. Zero textbook prices doesn’t imply no textbook. As an alternative, it means professors can faucet into a university’s on-line library and make these digital textbooks obtainable to their registered college students freed from cost. ZTC can even provide professor-created lectures as nicely.
ZTC can profit college students because it presents them a bit of bit of monetary respiration room. If ZTC have been fully carried out, college students would not want to purchase costly textbooks or carry round a ton of books.
There have been many programs that I used to be fascinated about however didn’t find yourself registering for as a result of the textbooks have been too costly. Now, once I see a course with the ZTC image subsequent to it, I’m extra more likely to take that course.
If faculties didn’t have ZTC courses, I’d not be capable of discover as many faculty programs that curiosity me. Or I must get a job that may take away from my learning time in an effort to pay for textbooks.
Free textbooks can be a step towards making schooling extra accessible for all.
For instance, Southwestern School in San Diego County experiences having saved its college students north of $4 million after adopting ZTC. Houston Group School in Texas reported in 2023 that college students in ZTC programs earned greater grades than college students in different courses.
I’m a minimum of not pressured to take courses that require textbooks. I’ve the privilege of having the ability to keep away from them if I can´t afford it. Nonetheless, many faculty college students want these courses in an effort to graduate and select to remain in them although they’ll’t and don’t purchase the textbook.
I keep in mind one course the place I did this and appeared up materials on YouTube and in an older version of the textbook I discovered within the library. Nonetheless, I used to be graded down on my essays as a result of my citations have been from the flawed pages.
College students ought to be graded on their capability to study, not on their capability to purchase a guide.
Sami Khan is a member of the category of 2026 at James Logan Excessive College in Union Metropolis.
