Media Specialists Play Key Role as Holocaust Ed Budgets Shrink
RSSBy Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 09/16/2009
School librarians can play a vital role in helping to support lessons on the Holocaust and genocide, say many of the country’s Holocaust educational groups, which are watching budgets shrink as state’s cut their funding.
“We need those who use our services advocating that this is a useful and timely resource for them,” says Felicia
 |
|
Felicia Anchor |
The Tennessee Holocaust Commission normally provides copies of its publications for every school in the state and also loans its Teacher Trunks, sets of classroom materials including CDs and videos to help educators build lessons about the Holocaust.
But the commission was downgraded this year to a non-recurring status in Tennessee’s budget, which means the $128,300 it receives annually is no longer guaranteed. While Anchor’s been assured federal stimulus funds should cover expenses for the next two years, the group is concerned about how it will run programs beyond that time.
State funding for the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education has also been affected, shrinking from about $244,000 last year to $180,000 this year, says Paul B. Winkler, the group’s executive director.
While the commission will still be able to provide librarians and teachers with curriculum guides on subjects from the Holocaust to Darfur, it may have to cut back on hiring speakers, as well as searching for other ways to make its budget stretch. Yet Winkler says its organization is lucky, since others, including the Pennsylvania Holocaust Education Council, are expected to lose all of their state funding this year.
This dearth of resources worries Winkler and other Holocaust educators who hope teachers and school librarians will hear a call to arms, and find ways to keep subjects like the Holocaust alive, while also fulfilling their other educational requirements.
“As they’re looking at materials, they can search for ones that carry out of a couple of roles,” he says. “Perhaps teaching an aspect of Darfur, while also doubling as a language arts book. In that way, our librarian community is very helpful.”
