GA Slashes School Library Funding

Georgia has a new place in history, but it's nothing to be proud about. In what appears to be the steepest cuts ever, the state legislature has slashed school library materials budgets by 50 percent for 2003. The measure, initiated by Gov. Roy Barnes, is expected to trim $14.1 million to help make up for the state's $535 million budget shortfall.

About 1.4 million students in 1,950 K–12 grade schools statewide will be affected. Under current law, school libraries are given an annual budget of $19.54 for each full-time student, but that will be reduced to $9.77 next year. The cuts will force many librarians like Pat Turner, a library media specialist at Cartersville High School, to scale back on online databases, subscriptions, books, and other valuable resources. "When you cut funding in the library, you hurt everyone," says Turner, who can't recall such drastic cuts to school libraries in her nearly three decades at the school. "The library is the largest classroom."

Ken Foster, a teacher at Cartersville High for 21 years, was shocked by the news. He doesn't have any textbooks for his law class—all student research takes place in the school library, where kids surf the Net and search online databases. "People who aren't in schools every day don't understand the interrelationship between the media center and what goes on in the classroom," he says. "They're completely connected."

What was the reasoning behind the cuts? "We made reductions that would have the least impact on classroom instruction," says Terry Gandy, head of education in the governor's Office of Planning and Budget. Ironically, Georgia's First Lady, Marie Dobbs Barnes, is honorary chair of the Georgia Early Learning Initiative. "It makes you wonder how long it's been since the governor has been to a media center," says Lasa Joiner, executive director of the Georgia Library Media Association.

The budget cuts are expected to be a temporary measure, although Gandy couldn't say when funds would be restored. The good news, he says, is that school librarians will receive a 3.25 percent pay raise next year on top of their standard three percent hike.