For subjects one is interested in, I don't think that the books' utility ends with the academic year. Also, I don't think the secondary market costs are very significant, it's not hard for parents in the same school district to find each other. I used to sell some used books to a neighbor whose child was 1 year behind me in school when I was growing up, though I kept some other books for subjects I particularly liked.
As I mentioned in another comment I grew up in a place where textbooks are much, much more affordable - I believe that a lot of this has to do with parents being exposed to the actual book prices every year, rather than the books being purchased at the institutional level and the costs passed on to taxpayers.
I don't recall wanting to revisit most of my school books. Certainly not my elementary or jr. high school books. I did in college buy a used copy of a different version of the American history textbook I used in high school. So I think the utility is rather small.
It's from 1993, and exists because curriculum changes in the 1960s-1980s meant that the books, which in "the early part of the century served students for generations, in some cases up to the 1960s", were now more freely selected by the teachers, while the parents pay the bill.
Some quotes:
"Between 50% and 80% of books sold in certain subjects may be recycled. The volume of recycled books in circulation makes the cost of the annual book bill to parents difficult to estimate."
"It is the conclusion of this Report that book rental schemes offer the most practical method of curtailing the cost of school books to parents in Ireland."
Related to this thread: "Students were found to treat books with vastly different degrees of care within areas, schools, and classes, whether they owned the books or rented them." So no, ownership isn't a key factor in how the books are treated.
Oh! Here's a more recent report ( http://www.barnardos.ie/assets/files/Advocacy/2012-School-Co... ), with details about the current cost breakdown. Regarding books, "[t]he majority of parents are spending ... over €250 for a secondary school pupil." "An ongoing criticism by parents has been the inability to pass books on between siblings due to new editions being prescribed by the teacher." "The reliance on workbooks as a pupil resource is also often criticised by parents as being wasteful and expensive because they cannot be reused. "
This suggests there is a non-trivial overhead to the secondary school book market in Ireland. (The hope is that the new the Code of Practice for the publishers may change that a bit.)
Even more info: http://www.labour.ie/elenasecas/news/13983441786294822.html from April 2014 reports that "20% of primary schools do not currently have book rental schemes" and that a new €15m School Book Fund will provide seed capital to start them (the 1993 report talks about the need for such a fund). As a result, they expect to "see the average book costs per child fall from about €100 per year, down to just €20."
This fits with my estimate of a 5 year depreciation schedule.
All of these suggest that purchasing books in Ireland is not "much, much more affordable". However, I can't find equivalent numbers for other countries, so I could be wrong.
Still, I get the idea that it isn't as rosy as you paint it.
BTW, why do so many Irish schools require a school crest on their uniform? How do they justify that extra cost?
€250 for a secondary school pupil per year actually seems cheap to me, given that students will be studying a median of 7 examinable subjects and a couple of others that are not tested (like civics/religion). On the other hand, I wasn't aware of the rise of workbooks, that's something I associate with education for younger children (say up to age 8 or 9). However, I'ma bit out of touch, since I finished school in 1987.
I would stand by my point about textbooks being more affordable in general, though. Compare introductory level university books on amazon.co.uk vs. amazon.com - I bought a lot fewer new programming books after I moved to the US because the ones were so expensive. If you look on the UK site you'll see books priced similarly to the US, but you'll also see 'international editions' of the same book which cost only about 25% as much, and it is this pricing you'll find in a typical bookstore. The only quality difference I've noticed is that paperbacks are more common over there, whereas American buyers seem to prefer hardbacks.
BTW, why do so many Irish schools require a school crest on their uniform? How do they justify that extra cost?
Heraldry is still culturally important even though we don't formalize it any more since we became independent from the UK. The patches cost only a few euros and and parents would typically buy them already attached to the sweaters/jackets, which are typically on sale as part of a package deal for the whole uniform (eg 3 pants and shirts, 2 sweaters, 1 tie, 1 jacket).
You'd probably save more money by abolishing the requirement for neckties, but when I was at school wearing a tie was still considered a requirement for being 'dressed'. The first year I was at the secondary school the uniform involved a round-neck sweater and open-collar shirt in the appropriate colors, but they switched to the more traditional v-neck sweater, shirt and tie to satisfy parents who thought the uniform wasn't dressy enough compared to those of the other schools'.
I realize this seems like a bizarre expense but then I wonder why so many US schools have illuminated signage and heavily designed sports logos, semi-pro sports facilities and so on. different priorities I suppose.
"textbooks being more affordable in general" -- but that's for university. I thought the conversation was about school systems where the schools might loan books to children, that is, primary and secondary school.
In the US, the same cost is 0, so is €250 is a lot less affordable than that, yes? (This $0 isn't quite true; in high school English class we would have to buy some of the books we were reading. These were relatively cheap paperbacks.)
Based on the 1990s report, it seems your experience of the Irish school system, based in the 1980s, is not really applicable. The increase in teacher choice of the teaching material has changed the market quite a bit because in your time the resale market was larger.
"The patches cost only a few euros" -- certainly, though the addition of a crest also serves to limit the clothing market. My question was how the school justified the extra cost. I assumed it was to establish a sense of school esprit de corp, but you suggest it's more a "that's the way it's always been" issue.
The "semi-pro sports facilities" for US high schools are usually voted on by the local community, since it calls for a tax raise for the funding. Is the crest requirement voted on by the parents? I thought it was determined by the school staff.
The illuminated signage I know of for schools seem primarily to provide messages to parents who drive and drop off the children at school. I don't think Ireland is a much a car-oriented country as the US.
"Heavily designed sports logos"? Are you talking again about college sports logos? I thought most high school logos were designed locally, and often either by the parents or the students. Many of them are outright copies of college and professional sports teams, which has gotten a few of them in licensing trouble.
As I mentioned in another comment I grew up in a place where textbooks are much, much more affordable - I believe that a lot of this has to do with parents being exposed to the actual book prices every year, rather than the books being purchased at the institutional level and the costs passed on to taxpayers.