Spokane Moms Push for More Moolah

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, Libraries for the 21st Century, Learning and Resource Centers for the School, 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 school students, one for every 750 middle school students, and one for every 1,000 high school students. 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.

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 (www.fundourfuturewashington.org), mount a statewide campaign, organize a rally at the legislature, and testify before state committees. 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 Brunkan. “Even if it’s only on paper right now, it’s still in the public domain.”