The ridiculous cost of textbooks has always been a sore point with me. Publishers have it made. You can look hours in a shopping center bookstore before you find a $60 book, but they are commonplace in college bookstores. In addition, textbook publishers are fond of making minor changes in the books and the issuing new editions that make it impossible for students to make use of used books that cost a fraction of the new ones.
Sometimes the books required for classes collectively can cost nearly as much as tuition. When you go to resell the books, well, good luck with that.
A recent Seattle Times story talks about how some colleges are helping out their students by making it possible to rent books. That is a great option and the Valley, with its many colleges and and low-income students, would be a good place to try this out. In California, only one college does this, Taft. The National Association of College Stores
Professors who pay attention can really do their students a service. Waiting one revision cycle between book upgrades gives the students many more chances to sell and buy used books.
When they move to the next book unthinkingly, they strand current students with their books, and doom the next class to full-priced new editions. [That usually don't change much -- but enough that you don't feel confident doing homework in an old edition.]
Professors could also give page reference in prior editions and also give handouts of any critical changes instead of being cooperating with the publishers. I can recall when I used prior editions limping through undergraduate school that finding the assignments was the problem in my limping, old editions. Moreso than the occasional change of information. I was lucky to learn the stuff in the old text!
My college rented textbooks by the semester. All you had to do as a student was show up at the "bookstore" and pick up your pre-packaged books (yes, the school had the books matched to your schedule). If one was too far gone for you to use, the student aides found a new one for you. At the end of the semester you dropped them off. After a quick review for quality, it was all done. I think I paid $75 a semester and got $50 back. Plus, when you wanted to buy a book at the end of the semester you could.
All in all, it was a great way to handle books. Students didn't have to sell blood to get what they needed and the professors were always sure everyone was, um, on the same page.