As College Insurrection recently reported, one New Hampshire college is trying to deal with the rising cost of textbooks.

Other colleges may want to follow suit sooner than later if this chart from Professor Mark J. Perry of the American Enterprise Institute is accurate.

According to Dr. Perry, the cost of college textbooks has increased by 812% since 1978.

The chart above shows the percent changes since 1978 for the CPI series “Educational Books and Supplies” (which is mostly college textbooks), the CPI series “Medical Services,” the median price for new homes from the Census Bureau, and the CPI series “All Items.” The 812% increase in the price of college textbooks since 1978 makes the run-up in house prices and housing bubble (and subsequent crash) in the 2000s seem rather inconsequential, and the nine-fold increase in textbook prices also dwarfs the increase in the cost of medical services over the last three decades.

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