According to The Guardian, the U.S. is 17th on the world education ranking and rightly so. From elementary to high school, I was often taught by teachers who lacked the resources to properly educate the children in their classroom.

Two years ago, I was learning from textbooks that were published in 2006 but had more updated versions. Now I understand why my high school was disinterested in purchasing those newer textbooks, they're hundreds of dollars! Regardless of whether or not they had the money or not to purchase hundreds of textbooks for students, the prices are absurd.

The spring semester is about to start for college students across the nation, and everyone's scouring their school's textbook shops and the internet for the best deals.

I was about to find myself paying over $200 for 3 books (not even textbooks) until a friend reminded me about Chegg.com that allowed students to rent textbooks cheaper than what the UT Co-op was selling them for.

If not for Chegg, I wouldn't have gotten the textbooks I needed for my classes because I can't afford the outrageous prices that UT claims are great deals; luckily, I only had to pay $74 which included free return shipping after the semester is over.

UT Austin professors make it completely unaffordable for students to purchase the resources they need in order to pass their classes. While classic novels usually cost less than $30, hardcover textbooks cost over $100 every time. Not to mention iClickers, attendance taking apps, access codes, Blue Books, and scantrons that professors require for their classes. Have they forgotten we are already paying thousands just to attend their class?

A lot of these class requirements are idiotic and not truly essential to the material learned in class. Blue Books are nothing more than sheets of lined paper stapled together and attendance taking apps like Squarecap still aren't enough incentive to keep students from skipping class (speaking from personal experience).

If education is as important as our society makes it out to be, students shouldn't have to pay an arm and a leg for the professor's 'required textbooks' that will help us succeed in their class and push us closer to graduation.

It's no wonder the U.S. ranks so low in education, it's practically unattainable.