President Obama Proposes Eliminating Federal School Library Funds
RSSBy Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 02/01/2010
President Obama has delivered a slap in the face to school librarians. In his FY2011 budget proposal to Congress on Monday, he completely eliminated the Improving Literacy for School Libraries grant program, designed to boost academic achievement by providing students with access to up-to-date school library materials.
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President Obama unveils the fiscal year 2011 budget, which wipes out federal funding specifically earmarked for school libraries. |
Although Obama’s proposal includes a $400 billion investment in education, there’s no mention of federal funds specifically geared toward school libraries—and that means schools with at least 20 percent of students coming from families who live below the poverty line will no longer have access to those badly needed monies for everything from library books and extended hours to technology and professional development.
“[Obama] is proposing to take away the last access to literacy for these kids in high-poverty areas,” says Barnett, whose own school qualifies for the grant program. If Congress approves the proposal, Barnett’s says her library budget will suffer and her district won’t rehire a library supervisor as planned.
Lisa Layera Brunkan, one of the three moms who co-founded the Fund Our Future Washington grassroots organization that lobbied for and secured $4 million in emergency funding for school libraries in their state, says Obama’s proposal would punish “our poorest, our most remote, and our most challenged students.”
“Put simply, cutting this program will hurt the children of the school districts that are scraping by with the least resources,” she adds. “The types of programs that are funded by Improving Literacy Through School Libraries are exactly what the business world and universities are saying matter and what parents want for their children.”
President George W. Bush, whose wife, Laura, was a former media specialist, allocated funds for the program throughout his two terms—and although his proposals never came close to the $250 million Congress had authorized in 2001 or the $100 million needed to transform it from a competitive grant to one purely based on need—at least he maintained federal monies for school libraries. Bush funded the program at $19.1 million in 2009 and 2008, and $19.5 in 2006 and 2007.
Barnett says the announcement was particularly disturbing because Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan had publicly expressed support for school libraries. “Just about every time Obama spoke to kids, he’d do it in a library,” says Barnett. “I took that as a sign.” Also, in January 2009, the Department of Education (DOE) released the “Second Evaluation of the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries Program,” which indicated that students attending schools participating in this program were scoring higher on state reading tests than students in schools that did not take part in the program. The study also said schools that participated in the program in 2003–2004 ended up with an extra 2.7 percent of their students meeting or exceeding proficiency requirements on state reading assessments.
“Something’s obviously wrong if we weren’t able to convince [Obama and Duncan] that state-certified school libraries are fundamentally important to learning,” Barnett says.
Obama’s budget consolidates federal monies for school libraries into a number of DOE programs, basically wiping out any federal funds earmarked for media centers. “Obama’s kids go to a nice fancy private school that has an excellent school library, says Emily Sheketoff, associate executive director of the American Library Association’s Washington office.“But sadly, that doesn’t apply to the rest of the country.”
The good news is it’s not a done deal, and Congress never approves the president’s budget as is. That means there’s still time to lobby members of the House and Senate before the fiscal year ends on September 30, 2010.
For its part, AASL plans a massive grassroots effort to contact lawmakers on the Hill, as well as getting the message out to its members via the AASL Forum online discussion group.
