Pink Slips Abound: Budget Cuts Take Their Toll

School librarians are having a rough time—and those in Arizona and California are feeling the effects of massive budget cuts, resulting in slashed hours and pink slips statewide.

“I’m scared,” says Ann Dutton Ewbank, a librarian at Arizona State University and the former president of the Arizona Library Association. “I’ve never seen it like this.”

Arizona doesn’t have dedicated funds for school libraries or mandate certified media specialists at any grade. To top it off, school libraries and librarians are controlled at the district level, not by the state Department of Education, which means that when funds are scarce, librarians are typically the first on the chopping block, says Ewbank.

While the Tucson Unified School District may reconsider its decision to cut the hours of media specialists, the news from other districts isn’t good. Fountain Hills Unified, for example, is proposing to install one district-level librarian to oversee new library aides, who would replace the four media specialists working at each school. Meanwhile, eight school librarians in the Tempe Elementary School District will lose their full-time status next fall, and the district library coordinator post may be eliminated.

In California, Jack O’Connell, the state superintendent of public instruction, recently announced the layoffs of about 20,000 teachers, librarians, counselors, nurses, and support staff for the coming school year. Why such drastic measures? The state’s budget deficit and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed $4.8 billion education cut. Lorraine Wiener, a librarian at Inglewood High School, is one of 150 Inglewood Unified School District educators who already received layoff notices.