WA Considers Permanent Funding for School Libraries

This article originally appeared in SLJ�s Extra Helping. Sign up now!

By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 6/23/2008 2:00:00 PM

The Spokane Moms have something more to brag about. Thanks in part to their efforts, Washington is considering long-term funding for school librarians and educational technology.

A joint task force on Basic Education Finance is currently exploring ways to revamp funding formulas for preschool to secondary education, and one of the proposals includes carving out permanent money for K–12 media specialists.

Specifically, the proposal asks the state to allocate $25 per student for library collections and equipment, as well as at least one certified librarian for every 500 elementary students, one for every 750 middle school students, and one for every 1,000 high school students, says the proposal called Libraries for the 21st Century, Learning and Resource Centers for the School. By comparison, in 2006–2007 Washington school districts spent $11 per student on library equipment and technology.

“This is the first time that I’ve been here that even the possibility for basic education funding for librarians and educational technology has been broached,” says Dennis Small Washington’s educational technology director.

Although no decision has been made, this is a major development because over the last few years school librarians across Washington were losing their jobs and seeing their hours slashed.

From left: Layera Brunken, McBurney, and Hill.

That’s when three determined mothers—Lisa Layera Brunkan, Susan McBurney, and Denette Hill—dubbed the “Spokane Moms” embarked on a massive grassroots campaign to launch a Fund Our Future Web site, mount a statewide campaign, organize a rally at the legislature, and testify before state committees. And their efforts have paid off big time: in March they convinced their legislature to allocate $4 million for school libraries for the 2008–2009 school year.

But that money will soon run out.

“That’s why these proposals matter so much,” says Layera Brunken. “Even if it’s only on paper right now, it’s still in the public domain.”

The proposal makes a strong case about the importance of media specialists. “School libraries do more than inspire reading and literacy through great books,” it says. “Libraries are the nexus between information and technology literacy.”

So far, Fund Our Future has garnered more than 6,000 signatures on its online petition asking the governor, the legislature, and the joint task force to fund a fulltime certified teacher librarian in every library and to “provide sufficient material allocation to place Washington state in the top 10 percent of the nation.”

So far, key decision makers are listening—Spokane Public Schools, the second largest district in the state, has not only agreed to restore elementary school librarians, it’s also proposing to kick in $100,000 to match state funds for K–12 libraries in the 2008–2009 academic year.

Needless to say, tech funding will play a huge role in the overall education funding discussions. Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson has called for a comprehensive statewide program to integrate technology into teaching and learning. The proposal outlines a seven-year tech funding plan requesting $87 per student in the first year and increasing that to a whopping $282 per student in 2015.

That’s great news for media specialists, too, because “They play such a big role in promoting 21st Century Skills: information literacy and tech literacy,” Small says.

Stay tuned. The task force plans to hold several more hearings in the coming months and is scheduled to release a report with its recommendations to the state legislature in mid-December.