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The rising cost of books prompts one state legislator to sponsor a bill that would let students comparison-shop.

Forget tuition for a moment. Some college students are just as worried about the rising price of textbooks.

Virginia21, a lobbying group for young people, thinks that it has an answer. A bill before the General Assembly would allow more time for students at Virginia's public colleges and universities to comparison-shop for textbooks. It would also prohibit agreements where publishers provide financial incentives to college faculty members for purchasing a particular book.

"The price of textbooks is getting out of control," said David Solimini, Virginia21's communications director.

The group plans to conduct a news conference Monday to outline the proposal.

College students spend about $900 a year on textbooks, according to a 2004 study that surveyed public colleges in California and Oregon and was reported in USA Today. Virginia21 cited an even higher figure: $817 a semester.

Critics say that subjects such as accounting and the history of ancient countries don't change much from year to year and that there was no need to purchase new books at the beginning of every term. Publishers say it's not that simple. Imagine an accounting text that didn't include recent scandals such as Enron, one publisher told USA Today.

Del. G. Glenn Oder, R-Newport News, has agreed to sponsor the bill. It would require the college or university to post textbook lists once the professor identifies what books he or she will require. The problem now, Virginia21 reports, is that students don't know which books they need until they arrive on campus. Then they're at the mercy of the bookstore.

If lists are posted in advance, students could comparison-shop on the Internet, where books are often less expensive, Solimini said.

Oder said, "These students are used to the Internet. They're used to shopping. It's the right thing to do."

The other practice -- professors' accepting financial incentives for selecting certain textbooks -- is something that Oder hasn't heard of happening in Virginia.

"All the more reason we should pass the bill," he said.

The bill would provide an exception for professors who receive royalties or other compensation from sales of textbooks that include the professor's own work.

Oder said people stopped him in the halls of the State Capitol to thank him for sponsoring the bill.

One lobbyist who was attending college, he said, had a textbook that included a test among the final pages.

After finishing the test, you had to rip out the pages, making the textbook useless. *

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