Chat Room-When Homework Is Good Politics

Public Youth Librarians Nationwide Have been drumming their heads on the wall because their message doesn't seem to be getting out: public libraries have an important role to play in our educational system. In fact, they're part of that system. When it comes to funding educational programs, "No one really opposes libraries—they just don't think of them," says Bessie Condos Tichauer, a children and youth services consultant at the California State Library.

Public libraries and librarians help hundreds, if not thousands, of their communities' kids with homework. They answer reference questions, create Web site directories that offer students valuable information, or simply provide a place for kids to do their homework when school libraries are closed.

Students have used public libraries for homework for as long as libraries have been around. The County of Los Angeles Public Library (COLAPL) has had homework centers in 30 branches for the last decade, complete with materials and, more importantly, staff that help children and young adults answer knotty questions. The centers were started with grants, many from corporations. Sony, for example, donated funds to build an impressive homework center for middle schoolers at COLAPL's Culver City branch. Penny Markey, COLAPL's youth services coordinator, thinks staffed homework centers are essential. "They help kids understand their homework," she says. "They are making a difference in the lives of the kids, most of all the latchkey kids."

But Markey is now championing a project, funded by the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), that demonstrates one of the roles that public libraries can play in education. COLAPL's Lynwood and Huntington Park branches are now demonstration sites for the new project in which a computer station will be reserved for students who need tutors for homework assignments. The tutors will be provided to these branches and to 44 other California libraries by Tutor.com (www.tutor.com), an online service that offers one-to-one tutoring services to public libraries and the general public.

The project is Tichauer's brainchild, and she says her aim was both practical—to help as many kids as possible with their homework—and political. She wants to show that education doesn't only take place in schools. "Education is not something that occurs only in the classrooms," she insists. "When the school libraries have closed down; where do the kids go for help?"

The San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) has been subscribing to Tutor.com for more than a year, and SFPL's administrators are pleased with the service's success (see "Live from Tutor.com, It's Homework Help ," July 2001). Tichauer created a program through which libraries, particularly libraries serving communities in need, could get free access to online tutoring for a year, and pay half the cost the following year. California has contracted to pay Tutor.com $225,000 of LSTA funds to provide the service in 46 library buildings. Kids coming into the demonstration libraries after school will be able to sit down at a computer and get linked to a tutor who specializes in, say, ninth-grade algebra. Individual tutoring sessions may take up to 30 minutes.

As with any grant project, the lingering question is where the money will come from when the grant ends. Tutor.com costs about $1,000 a month, and while libraries may be able to obtain a discount, finding thousands of dollars for a homework-help service each year won't be easy. Tichauer and Markey realize that politicians and the public need to be told repeatedly about the critical role that public libraries play in K–12 education.

When COLAPL initiated its homework centers 10 years ago, Markey quickly learned that you can never do enough to let local schools and parents know that they're open and available. With the schools near each branch offering Tutor.com's services, she plans to let them know regularly about what the public library's doing, and to get out the word about them to every elected official from the county supervisors to members of Congress. She says: "We've told government officials about how we're making a difference in the lives of children, and they're impressed that we're helping kids at risk." Next, do public libraries dare ask for ongoing funding for these programs?