One of the promises that came with the growing tablet market was an end-run around college textbook price-gouging. Students everywhere were supposed to be using interactive textbooks and doing homework within social class apps by now. Obviously, that hasn’t happened yet, but Amazon is still pushing to make sure it’s tablets are in the hands of students.

Slashgear is reporting that Amazon has launched a $50 off promotion for its Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ tablets – but only for students. Anyone who is signed up with Amazon Student (using a .edu email address) for a discounted Amazon Prime membership has access to the deal. Both the Wi-Fi and 4G LTE versions of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ are eligible for the sale price, and the deal lasts throughout the month of January.

Amazon is encouraging Kindle owners to use their devices as learning tools. Amazon Student members can subscribe to Amazon Prime for $39 a year, which is slightly less than half the normal price. In addition, Amazon allows textbook rental through its Kindle tablets, and recently introduced the X-Ray feature for textbooks. X-Ray is an integrated glossary allows users to cross-reference words and passages throughout a book and on the web through Wikipedia and YouTube.