What do C.W. Harris, Amidon-Bowen, Ross, Hyde-Addison, Garrison, Francis-Stevens, Garfield and Hearst elementary schools have in common? The librarians at those institutions could be eliminated next year, according to a proposal being pushed by Mayor Vincent C. Gray and Chancellor Kaya Henderson as part of the DC Public Schools fiscal 2013 budget.
The proposal would eliminate librarians at schools with student populations of 299 or fewer. Larger facilities would retain their librarians. But, they would be included under “flexible funding,” allowing principals to make the final decision about whether to keep or cut them.
Call it the Gray-Henderson anti-intellectual plan.
“This administration says one thing and then its actions are counter to what they say their goals are,” said Terry Lynch, a District civic leader and education advocate.
“Our intent is that schools would find creative ways to address [the reductions],” Henderson recently told me, citing the possible use of teachers, parents or volunteers to replace lost librarians. That view ignores the educational background, training and skills a librarian brings.
“Do I have the ability to staff every single school with a librarian?” continued Henderson. “Not without giving up something else.”
The attack on school libraries and librarians comes despite DCPS’ a proposed $812 million fiscal 2013 budget. It also follows the mayor’s decision last year to reduce Sunday service at the city’s public libraries. Only after efforts by Lynch and others, aided by D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells, did Gray restore the $300,000 needed to keep the central Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library open on Sundays.
“Between cuts to school libraries and no new initiatives funded in DC Public Libraries, this [2013] budget doesn’t seem to make access to library services a priority,” Wells told me. “The failure to fund the DC Public Libraries book budget assures we will not have the latest materials needed for students as well as the rest of our residents.”
“This administration talks a big game about wanting to improve literacy,” said Lynch. “They find funding for everything they want — pro sports endeavors, special trips, you name it.”
Parents, teachers and others at Ross, Addison-Hyde and Hearst likely will band together to fill the void created by the mayor and Henderson’s decision to defund certain library expenses. But many other schools lack the capacity to prevent an adverse impact on the removal of their librarians.
“[Further], lower-enrolled schools oftentimes have higher basic literacy and math needs,” said Lynch.
Ward 7’s C.W. Harris has only 202 students. In 2011, only 21 percent of those tested met or exceeded reading standards. At Ward 6’s Amidon-Bowen, where Target recently renovated the school library, there are 272 students; only 19 percent of those tested met or exceeded reading standards. At Ward 8’s Garfield, where the population is 249, an abysmal 8 percent of students tested met or exceeded reading standards.
Those — and others like them — are the last schools that should lose trained librarians. The legislature should mount a rescue.
Jonetta Rose Barras’s column appears on Monday and Wednesday. She can be reached at [email protected].
