In the middle of the summer season, the prospect of a most salty September For those who have children at school. The increase in textbooks, on average of 1.7% in averages and 1.8% in superiors, holds the bench in the economic and social debate.
The figures spread by the Italian publishers’ association, in line with Istat inflation, have triggered the reaction of publishers, booksellers and students who accuse the institutions of inertia.
The dear-book dossier once again becomes the symbol of a school that struggles to remain accessible and an increasingly crushed distribution sector. The voices of those who work, sell and study ask the government immediate interventions in order not to transform education into a privilege for a few.
Textbooks, price lists remain fixed for the entire school year
The AIE recalls that the prices of the school manuals are set in January and remain blocked until the following year. From 2021 to 2024 cumulative inflation came to 14.7%but the price lists have grown much less: +7.5% for averages and +8.2% for high school, therefore about half.
Giorgio Riva, president of the AIE educational group, highlights that
“In the last five years the publishers have limited prices of prices thus contributing not to aggravate the economic weight on families, despite the costs they face have increased”.
Riva then invokes Two public interventions: one deduction tax for all families and a strengthening of aid intended for nuclei in poverty, to be paid more quickly. This is an important expense, which cannot be deducted in 730.
For the Italian booksellers association (wings) the scissor between inflation and book prices has been absorbed by still crushing the margins of the bookstores. Paolo Ambrosini, President Ali, asks for measures to support the application, from the tax deduction, proposed by the Association since 2008to the immediate implementation of the Olivetti Plan and the promises of Minister Giuli at the Book Fair.
How much the deduction on public coffers would weigh
The AIE calculates that a deduction generalized would weigh between 50 and 100 million euros, destined to decrease with the drop in births. In the first months of 2025, the editorial market lost over 4%, with a worsening in June for minor purchases of libraries and eighteen -year -old young people.
The Association asks Minister Giuli to immediately unlock the extraordinary funds for libraries and rethink the young cards to make it really effective.
How much you spend on average for textbooks
According to Federconsumatori, in 2024 a family spent about 591 euros on average for only mandatory textbooks, with peaks close to 1,200 euros if you also consider the school kit. For 2025 the estimate is around 620 euros only for volumes, With an ever heavier incidence on the family budget, especially for those with more dependent children.
There is a motion to study
The senator of the 5 Star Movement Barbara Floridia announced the presentation of a Motion on dear books To ask for “immediate and structural interventions: support for families, dissemination of accessible digital materials, relaunching comfortable use, real tax deductions”. Floridia asks for clear political choices why
“The public school must return to being a space of equality, not the silences to which Giorgia Meloni has now accustomed us.”
