Monopoly and inertia. Some would say corruption and favors.

Why is defense spending so expensive? Because our military is important, or because a defense contractor can submit an over-inflated proposal because the bids might not be competed fairly on price.

Simply put, textbooks are expensive because the publishers know how to curry favor of the people at both k-12 and higher Ed who are responsible for purchasing textbooks or assigning textbooks to be purchased.

So... Ripe for disruption?

Yes. http://pandawhale.com/convo/5001/discovery-invests-in-digital-textbooks-in-hopes-of-growth-nytimescom

Conventional textbooks for kindergarten through 12th grade are a $3 billion business in the United States, according to the Association of American Publishers, with an additional $4 billion spent on teacher guides, testing resources and reference materials. And almost all that printed material, educators say, will eventually be replaced by digital versions.

“It’s kind of perfect for us,” said David M. Zaslav, chief executive of Discovery Communications, which owns networks like Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and TLC. “Educational content is core to our DNA, and we’re unencumbered — unlike traditional textbook publishers, we’re not defending a dying business.”

Nicholas Casale is the former deputy director of security for counterterrorism for the New York metro transit agency. He told the Associated Press once Castillo crossed the perimeter, there should have been a red alert: "Immediately there should have been an armed response. Heavy weapons, armored cars to the area that the perimeter was breached. The airport should have been locked down."

New York Rep. Peter King chairs the House Homeland Security Committee and warns the matter could come up in a congressional hearing, according to Newsday. "The bad part is a guy who didn't know what he was doing was able to breach a $100-million security system."

The Port Authority told ABC it's undertaking a fast review of Castillo's breach and will find out how the perimeter detection system, built by defense contractor Raytheon "could be improved."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/jfk_security_system_is_junk_Bhn6hT4vvDJ88g7jWJ39mK

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$100m + Defense contractor = no Funciona

And that's national security. Now imagine textbooks...