Free textbooks can free the world

In today's economy, people must be picky when figuring out where to spend their money. For average American college students, the price of college tuition already causes them to feel the strain. Any extra expenses, like textbooks, are put on the chopping block when students realize the outrageous prices and question if they are really necessary to success. Each semester, students need to decide whether they will sacrifice their bank account or their grade report. Students like me. My name is Kristyna Mauch and I am a senior at the University of Georgia (UGA). Currently, I am an intern at the Global Text Project held by the Terry College of Business at UGA and I am working for a better tomorrow when it comes to college textbooks.

The average textbook can cost anywhere from USD 50 to USD 200. Now multiply that by four to six classes with some classes requiring multiple books depending on your major. It all adds up to be a lot of money. College students that are working to support themselves or depending on federal loans cannot necessarily afford both textbooks and the essentials for life, like food and rent for their apartment. In these circumstances, making an economic decision to not purchase textbooks can negatively affect your grades but at least you will be able to buy enough Ramen noodles to get through the week. It all comes down to students ability to manage money, time and priorities.

Everyday students make these decisions of one or the other, but what if you could have both without sacrificing anything? That is what Global Text Project is working to do by making textbooks available online at no cost. Imagine, instead of standing in long lines to buy expensive, overpriced books, with a click of a button you can upload the necessary texts for your classes for free. There are so many advantages to this situation. With the extra money you saved by not spending it on textbooks, you can buy a month's worth of food. You will undoubtedly do better in your classes if you actually have the required books for the class and you do not have to worry about how your going to pay next month's rent because of purchasing textbooks.

Internationally, a textbook is a lot more outrageously priced when compared to their average daily expenses. According to Anup Shah in a report from globalissues.org, about 80 per cent of humanity live under USD 10 a day. In other words, It would take 10 days of work in order to buy one textbook for USD 100 in parts of the world that live in poverty or have poor economies. I believe this is a causing factor to the 121 million children out of education that Shah reports. By making textbooks free, like Global Text is trying to do, we can work to help educate those children. It may seem like something that would not be a problem in this day and age but according to Shah, a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their name. This is definitely a real problem. Through Global Text Project, people can learn without an expense. This makes life a little bit easier financially and opens up the entire world through education. The benefits of education are unmeasurable but they are undoubtedly positive.

Making textbooks available online for free opens up all sorts of possibilities for university students around the world. This is why we, as interns at Global Text, do what we do. We believe in a cause that will help educate the many without interfering with the way they live. Just like an average American college student will not have to worry about paying for rent because of the cost of textbooks, an international student will not have to worry about paying for food or other vital necessities for life. Having access to free textbooks, gives us a new choice. Instead of choosing between the cost of living and the cost of learning, we get to choose the freedom of education. As interns, we want to give others this choice too.