Experienced college professors frequently hear tales of their cash-strapped students staying up late at night tending bar or delivering pizzas when they might have been studying.

But they don’t always learn of one significant detail that could actually make a difference in their students’ checkbook balances: Textbook publishers haven’t always informed them of the retail prices of the books they select.

According to a recent congressional report, American students at four-year public colleges paid an average of $898 for textbooks in 2003-2004, sometimes more than their parents paid for an entire year’s tuition. From 1986 to 2004, textbook prices jumped 186 percent, more than twice the rate of inflation.

Yet professors often selected books without learning their sticker prices.

This year a new law goes into effect in Washington state, one of seven states in the country to enact similar legislation. It requires publishers to notify professors of the prices bookstores will be charging students. They’ll also have to inform professors of the history of recent revisions to the text.

Often an earlier edition differs little from a newer one and costs considerably less.

This Washington law follows 2006 legislation that required college bookstores to sell books separately from expensive add-ons such as CDs and study guides, disclose information, and actively promote textbook buy-back programs.

These new laws were designed to reduce some of the financial pressure on college students and their families. As demand for college education has increased in this country, so have the costs. And while bookstore sticker prices may cause even affluent parents to fret, they hit low- and moderate-income families harder. They can be the extra expense that drives a student to drop out of school.

Around the country, other solutions are emerging – from devising new textbook rental programs to placing pressure on publishers to stop charging more for texts marketed in the U.S. than abroad. Other ideas include stronger book buy-backs and more online texts.

In the meantime, college professors must keep their eyes and ears open.

They often hear of students sharing books, switching from one class to another just because the textbooks are cheaper, or skipping the textbook altogether.

In Washington this fall they should discover the figures that have the power to make a difference.