Media Specialist Urges U.S. Senate to Fund School Libraries
RSSBy Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 04/28/2010
Jamie Greene, a school librarian at Hugh Cole Elementary School in Warren, RI, last week testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), urging lawmakers to ensure that school library funding makes its way into the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), slated to take place later this year.
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Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed (left) and school librarian Jamie Greene. |
“My understanding is that the senators want to look at achievement as they look at [ESEA], but they also realize there are several aspects to having a successful learner,” says Greene, also president of the Rhode Island School Library Association.
Greene says she and other panelists who spoke at the hearing hope lawmakers will support maintaining dedicated funds for the federal Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program, as well as professional development funds for schools so they can continue to recruit and train school librarians and ensure academic success among students.
Currently, school librarians face a rough road as states across the country continue to lay off teachers, including many certified librarians, and shutter school libraries as public school funding has decreased for even these basics.
Senators seemed to understand the plight of media specialists, says Greene, and they asked her and other panelists about what educational program could be sacrificed if lawmakers diverted more funds to school libraries and professional development.
“I believe the senators are struggling to find an answer,” she says. “They said there are only a certain amount of finances available. And one panelist said they felt the DARE [Drug Abuse Resistance Education] program had evidence that showed it wasn’t successful.”
Greene understands the critical importance of having evidence to back up the link between library programs headed by a certified librarian and student achievement. She says her colleagues should take note, especially in today’s economic environment, and the pressure it places on lawmakers to decide on how funds are distributed.
“I think it will be very important for school librarians to develop measures of accountability, performance measures within our own profession,” she says. “My sense is that will be an absolute necessity for those of us in the future.”
