School Libraries to Get a Paltry $19.96 Million
Funding increase for Improving Literacy Through School Libraries is a 'drop in the bucket'
By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 1/1/2004
"It's good news that there's been an increase [in funding]," says Camille Bowman, a government relations specialist at the American Library Association. "But it's just a drop in the bucket when you compare it to the billions spent on defense and education overall."
Bowman urges librarians to continue pressing lawmakers to raise federal funding levels for school library materials, particularly since Congress will be focused on more pressing issues such as homeland security and American forces in Iraq. "Those drains on the budget will make our job of trying to get the money even harder," she adds.
Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), an original sponsor of the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries legislation in 2001, sent a letter in September urging his colleagues to appropriate $27.5 million for the program in 2004—the same amount requested in the President's budget, says Reed's spokesman. But both houses of Congress felt that figure was too high. In the end, the House approved $19.96 million, and a final vote by the Senate will likely take place in January.
Congress authorized $250 million for Improving Literacy Through School Libraries in 2001, the first time in about three decades that federal funds were solely devoted to school library materials. But the law was appropriated at only $12.5 million in its first year of operations, a paltry sum that was only enough to cover 73 grants out of 800 applications. Once the law is approved at $100 million, it turns into a grant that would apply to all states.
Meanwhile, Congress also tentatively agreed to appropriate $20 million to help recruit and train library professionals, double last year's amount of $10 million. The unprecedented sum comes at a crucial time: about 68 percent of librarians are expected to retire or leave the profession by 2020.
The grants are distributed through the Institute of Museum and Library Services and are aimed at educating the next generation of librarians, from increasing the enrollment at graduate-level library schools to attracting promising high school and college students to the profession.
