The start of a new school year is an expensive time for parents, more so during a financial crisis and when the Central Government budget for subsidies for books has been slashed by 80% in the past two years.
Last year, 578,549 fewer people benefited from government subsidies to help pay for school books, which are by no means cheap. And because the book list is never the same two years running, there is little or no opportunity for handing on textbooks or the development of a second hand market for such items.
Regions had begun developing and extending free, or almost free, books in schools but they too have had their budgets cut drastically and they becoming increasingly limited in what assistance they can offer.
Madrid, for one, has now moved from a system of subsidies to ‘loans’ for school books.
Some parent groups have tried to organise book sharing systems or second hand markets but it is not easy. Second hand is more difficult, of course, as the reading list changes, or books are updated, from year to year even when the subject matter itself is ‘static’.