Governor Launches Book Fund

California's first couple, Governor Gray Davis and his wife, Sharon, have decided to help bail out the state's book-deprived school libraries—at least some of them. Thanks to the recently created Governor's Book Fund, 47 schools throughout the state will each receive a $5,000 grant to purchase library books. The private fund, which the governor created in collaboration with the California State Library Foundation, is fueled by contributions from state businesses and charity events. "The governor and I know how important reading is to a child's future," says Sharon Davis. "Reading is the gateway skill. If students are all going to become confident learners, they first need to become confident readers."

Although more than $300 million has been allocated to California's approximately 8,000 school libraries in the past two years, many of them are still struggling. Some of the newer school libraries, for example, have as few as one or two books per student. And more than 500 of the 2,700 school libraries that applied for the governor's grant have no more than six books per child. For those libraries, an infusion of $5,000 is likely to be more of a bandage than a cure. "It is a sad fact that too many students in California can't find the newest, most challenging books," says the state's First Lady.

Still, reasons Barbara Jeffus, a library consultant for the state's Department of Education and a board member of the Governor's Book Fund, a dollop of help is better than nothing. "I think that if the governor is paying any attention at all to school libraries, that's a good thing…. If we're on his radar [screen], how can that be bad?"

Yet, what the state's school libraries really need, insists Jeffus, is money to hire more school librarians. Right now, there is only one school librarian for every 4,684 students in grades kindergarten through 12.