Bush Sends Educators Mixed Message
The president's FY 2005 budget may be good for libraries but bad for education
By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 3/1/2004
There's some good and bad news about President Bush's FY 2005 budget. The good news is that he's calling for $220 million, or an 11 percent increase, in funding for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and maintaining $20 million for Improving Literacy Through School Libraries grants. He also proposed setting aside $100 million for a new Striving Readers Initiative, which will offer competitive grants to middle or high schools with students reading significantly below grade level. The bad news, however, is that the president plans to kill 65 federal programs next year, 38 of which are in the Department of Education (DOE).
How do librarians and educators feel about this mixed message? For one, the American Library Association (ALA) says it's "gratified that the Bush Administration recognizes the vital role that libraries play in providing essential services to patrons throughout the country," particularly during these tough economic times. "[Bush] is signaling to other government bodies that libraries are important," says Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the ALA's Washington office, despite the fact that the funding amounts still fall short of the $300 million Congress authorized for LSTA and the $200 million it authorized for Improving Literacy Through School Libraries.
But educators aren't as sanguine about the budget, particularly since the much touted No Child Left Behind Act penalizes schools that fail to raise students' math and reading scores. "The Bush administration and Congress promised that our nation's public schools would receive the resources needed to reach the lofty goals of the so-called No Child Left Behind Act for all children," reads a statement from the National Education Association. "Instead, we see an election year filled with continued broken promises and gimmicks."
The White House says eliminating 65 programs would save a projected $4.9 billion, just a drop in the bucket compared to this year's record $521 billion deficit. Meanwhile, the 38 DOE programs scheduled for elimination would only account for $1.4 billion in projected savings. They include key learning initiatives such as the Even Start literacy program, which serves low-income communities, Star Schools distance education, and the Community Technology Centers program.
"I was shocked to learn that the administration's budget recommends zeroing out Even Start," says Sharon Darling, founder of the National Center for Family Literacy, adding that the administration emphasized the need for the program in its report, "No Child Left Behind: A Desktop Reference." (For a copy of the report, visit www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/nclbreference/index.html?src=mr.)
However, Sheketoff explains that the $247 million from Even Start will help fund Bush's new Striving Readers Initiative, which could provide a role for librarians. "Librarians had limited access to Even Start," she says. "But I've heard librarians can actively participate in the new program to improve literacy." It's still unclear what role librarians would have in the program since it has yet to be launched.
