A Librarian in Every School, Books in Every Home • A Modest Proposal

[proud2BlibKansan]

By Bob Peterson

This spring, within a week’s time, two things happened that made me angry. The first was the release of scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) that showed African American 4th graders in Wisconsin (most of whom live in Milwaukee) had the lowest reading scores in the nation. Despite the limitations of such tests, the results confirmed what many educators already knew: Way too many Milwaukee children are not reading at an acceptable level.

The second was the district’s announcement of major cuts to local school budgets for next year. At the 400-student elementary school where I work, the projected cuts meant that, despite a modest increase in student enrollment, we had to cut an additional staff position. Given that in the past few years budget cuts had forced us to eliminate the music teacher, gym teacher, program implementor, half a secretarial position, and all of our regular classroom teaching assistants, we had little choice but to eliminate our librarian position. Similar cuts occurred throughout the Milwaukee schools, so it’s likely that next year the nearly 100 elementary and K-8 schools in the district will have only five full-time librarians.

The local media and policy makers expressed “outrage” on the first matter but ignored the second. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called for “greater accountability,” “firing bad teachers,” “linking teacher pay to performance,” and a number of other proposals. Local talk show hosts and columnists echoed the paper’s calls. Ignored was any recognition that the nearly 55 percent jobless rate in parts of the black community might impact children’s lives.

But, most tellingly, there was not one mention of libraries or librarians, or the need for children to have books in their homes.

<skip>

Back at the Rescue Our Librarians Club, we did some calculations. Assuming that wages and benefits for a librarian average $75,000 a year, and that there are 95,000 public schools in the United States, the government would have to find $7,125,000,000 to ensure a librarian for every school.

“Wow, that’s a lot!” one student exclaimed.

And it is. I directed the children to the website The Cost of War (costofwar.com), where we discovered that the United States spends nearly $300 million daily on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We figured out that funding all those librarians for a year was equivalent to 25 days of war spending.

more . . . http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/24_04/24_04_librarian.shtml

[Xenotime]

1. Personally, I think books are overrated...

They present one side and don't allow for a counter argument. Get something more progressive for this day and age of education.

[Hannah Bell]

3. it's why students are expected to read more than one.... :>)

[LWolf]

6. More progressive than a book???

A book is a vehicle for ideas and information...of any kind.

So is music. Radio. TV. Internet. All are tools for communicating ideas. All have their uses.

Personally, as someone who grew up without computers, I prefer a book to a screen. To each her own.

But to suggest that it is the communication tool, and not the idea being communicated in any one volume or at any one time, is somehow at fault, is ludicrous.

[nickinSTL]

2. Excellent idea

There's a fair amount of awareness of the plight of schools in this economy - their budgets are getting hit hard and teachers are out of work all over the country.

And the librarians in those schools are often not being re-hired in the fire and hire cycle that is currently the trend. The value of a certified school librarian can't be overestimated.


The hit that libraries are taking across the country is less well known. In Illinois, most public libraries are still managing to hold on - but there have been some high-profile libraries closing, firing most of their staff and closing branches.

And in Illinois, the regional library systems that provide continuing education opportunities, consulting expertise on a wide variety of topics, from youth services to legal issues faced by library boards to advocacy assistance, plus the online catalog and delivery systems are facing the worst crisis in their 45-year history. The state government is so far behind in releasing funding that has been approved that of the 9 current library systems, it is expected that by this time next year will have been reduced to 1. The likely efficacy of one organization providing all of these services to an entire state is questionable at best.

Libraries in Ohio and California are also being very hard hit, Florida libraries recently dodged a funding bullet, and libraries across the country are struggling to survive in this economy.

[knitter4democracy]

4. In every school I've taught in, we've always needed more books.

More class sets, more books in the library, more books available to the students. We never have enough to meet the curricular needs, let alone the students' needs.

I wish we had a library in the alternative high school where I teach. We do what we can and get books donated, but Lord knows we could use a real library.

[TruthTeller]

5. which is why my new favorite quote is....

Cutting Libraries in a Recession is Like Cutting Hospitals in a Plague!

Eleanore Crumblehulme