Arkansas Spares Library Funding
State Board of Education overrides a recommendation to slash library aid
Kathy Ishizuka -- School Library Journal, 7/1/2002
Arkansas's public libraries will receive $500,000 from the state, despite a recommendation by Department of Education Director Ray Simon to cut all library aid from the 2003–2004 budget.
The Arkansas Board of Education approved the school budget on June 10, including $500,000 to fund the state's 242 public libraries. That's down from $2.5 million for the current academic year and $4.9 million in 2000–2001. Simon had proposed eliminating the State Aid to Public Libraries program altogether in an effort to balance the education department's budget, says John Kunkel, the Department of Education's assistant director of finance. But library advocates and some legislators urged the board to spare at least some state funding.
The 14-branch Southeast Arkansas Regional Library, already reeling from a recent cut of 60 percent, will further reduce hours and staff, says Library Director Kim Patterson, who adds that Arkansas is ranked 50th in staff compensation and about the same in overall library expenditures nationwide. "With this," he says, "I imagine we're dead last again."
