That’s easy. The arts and libraries.
One-third of public schools do not have a full-time, certified librarian. Schools in affluent districts do not fire librarians and arts teachers, so those who need these services the most are most likely to have cutbacks.
“Members of the American Library Association call it a national crisis, as colleges and careers increasingly require students to have expansive digital literacy skills. Some 20 percent of public school libraries do not have any full- or part-time state-certified librarians, according to a 2013 report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
“Though physical book collections are shrinking in many districts, the role of librarians or media specialists is expanding. Along with fostering a love of reading, librarians teach students media literacy, in part how to research, analyze information and evaluate sources to determine what is accurate, says Gail Dickinson, past president of the American Association of School Librarians.
“The librarian’s ability to teach all students these digital literacy skills plays a large role in closing the digital divide between students with internet at home and those who don’t have access, she adds…..
“School libraries with more staff and larger collections lead to stronger academic performance, according to a study by the American Association of School Librarians. Students at schools with better funded media centers tend to achieve higher average reading scores, regardless of family income and parent education level.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The neglect of school library programs helps perpetuate inequities in literacy and productive use of technology. Unfortunately, as is also the case in other license categories like career and technical education, the cut in available jobs is leading to fewer people pursuing education and licensure in these areas. When the cuts started nationally, there was still a pool of qualified library media specialists. That pool is starting to dry up, with consequences to schools that would like to offer a quality library media program but may not be as attractive due to location or other factors.
This is one of the areas where a federal mandate might be useful. Perhaps e-Rate funding should be tied to a base level of library media staffing.
The forced closing of school libraries and firings of school librarians help create an artificial need for digital resources to make up for this manufactured shortage. Such school policy and inequity(richer schools retain libraries/librarians)is an aspect of privatization. Tech companies will supply online materials at a cost. This is one managed way to secure higher profits in the “free enterprise” system.
When I was still teaching in Rowland Unified School District (1975-2005), every time there were budget cuts, the teachers often sacrificed through contract negotiations to save services such as the library, arts, drama, band, chorus, etc., and those sacrifices usually meant a lower pay increase and increased class sizes. When I left, the average student class load for academic subjects was 34 in English, and PE teachers worked with about 90-100 students each period.
I just checked the HS website, and Nogales High School in La Puente still has a librarian, and I’m sure that’s because the teachers are still willing to make sacrifices to their pay and work load to keep as many of these services in place as possible.
According to the 2012 school report card, 78.4 percent of the students are Socioeconomically Disadvantaged and the average class size is still high.
Click to access 2012%20Nogales%20High%20School%20Accountability%20Report%20Card.pdf
The ed-reformers simply don’t care what happens to the quality of educational resources for children of the “unwashed masses”.
Recently I talked to two people that I know who work in the private sector. One was a highly paid consultant in the financial industry earning six figures, and the other owns his own business. When I told them about the manufactured crises by the corporate, for-profit, fake education reformers, they both shrugged and told me to get used to it.
They weren’t upset in the slightest. Both told me that’s how it works in the private sector—especially when a company is publicly traded and is being pressured by its share holders to make larger profits on a quarterly basis.
The only goal is to boost those profits or else and this translates into our children becoming nothing but a number leading to those profits. You are right. The fake PubEd reformers have hijacked the name “reform” to fool as many people as possible to boost those Wall Street profits while they pay themselves six-figure incomes way higher than the average public school administrator gets paid.
By the time the public wakes up and realizes they have been conned, the public schools could be a smoldering ruin and democratic public education in the United States a thing of the past.
And this is why we in the resistance can’t relax for even a day just because the most recent surveys are polling in our favor. This war will never end as long as one education carpetbagger oligarch is allowed to continue conning money out of the public with the use of cherry picked lies and misinformation designed to mislead with help from the private sector, corporate controlled, for-profit traditional media.
The CEO’s of these major media outlets have the same mindset as the fake education reformers. They all think alike—-this is just business as usual, and the most ruthless, biggest crook wins.
The stereotype of the word “librarian” remains hard and fast in our collective minds. The bun, the frumpy, cranky (always) female who guards the books. In the meantime, our newest graduates of Schools of Information Science defy that stereotype by often being the most tech-savvy person in the school. They struggle to get access to students, to implement their Information Fluency curriculum and their positions are always, always threatened.In the meantime, school administrators and board of education laugh derisively about that frumpy librarian – and cut the budget for the position. In the meantime, teachers, poorly prepared to teach the information literacy skills that students need for college and life, try to engage their students in inquiry based learning with only half of the necessary team – teacher and librarian.
I know that the arts saved many students in our school who were indeed potential dropouts. All children have talents. For some it may be music, for some it may be art, for some it may be writing, and for some it may be solving mathematical problems. If we don’t value the fine and performing arts we are shutting out so many of our brightest. And..don’t forget sports!
Yet again: We train animals. We educate, or should, people. Do people exist for corporate American or does society at large exist for people? When banks are too big to fail and the government does little to nothing to overcome that and the wealth of the nation goes to just the upper l or even .1 of one percent should we be surprised when our children and their future are put in the hands of those who see them merely as “serfs you are and serfs you shall remain”.
In LAUSD, Deasy has been engaging in a full-on assault against libraries and specifically the librarians. The librarians that Deasy has not yet fired have, for the last three years, been put through continuous Stalinist-type trials with grueling and sometimes idiotic questioning. (READ the story BELOW). These librarians are tormented and forced to defend the existence of librarians’ and libraries’ very existence.
These “show trial” horrors are conducted by legal Terminator-type lawyers with ZERO background in education, a bunch of vicious outsiders funded by Gates and Broad. Their goals—or the goals of their corporate masters—is, of course, to get those librarians on trial, and other librarians watching, to quit and just go away:
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/13/local/la-me-0513-tobar-20110513
Pretty scary stuff: (from the usually pro-Deasy L.A. TIMES, by the way… re-read this any time you hear Deasy proclaim how much he cares about children’s education,
or think of it when Deasy proclaims, “I love teachers. How can people say that I ‘hate’ them. I’m a teacher myself. That would be like hating myself!”)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“THE DISGRACEFUL INTERROGATION OF L.A. SCHOOL LIBRARIANS”
“If state education cuts are drastic, the librarians’ only chance of keeping a paycheck is to prove they’re qualified to be switched to classroom teaching. So LAUSD attorneys grill them.
“May 13, 2011 — Hector Tobar
“In a basement downtown, the librarians are being interrogated.
“On most days, they work in middle schools and high schools operated by the Los Angeles Unified School District, fielding student queries about American history and Greek mythology, and retrieving copies of vampire novels.
“But this week, you’ll find them in a makeshift LAUSD courtroom set up on the bare concrete floor of a building on East 9th Street. Several sit in plastic chairs, watching from an improvised gallery as their fellow librarians are questioned.
“A court reporter takes down testimony. A judge grants or denies objections from attorneys. Armed police officers hover nearby. On the witness stand, one librarian at a time is summoned to explain why she — the vast majority are women — should be allowed to keep her job.
“The librarians are guilty of nothing except earning salaries that the district feels the need to cut. But as they’re cross-examined by determined LAUSD attorneys, they’re continually put on the defensive.
” ‘When was the last time you taught a course for which your librarian credential was not required? ‘ an LAUSD attorney asked Laura Graff, the librarian at Sun Valley High School, at a court session on Monday.
” ‘I’m not sure what you’re asking,’ Graff said. ‘I teach all subjects, all day. In the library.’
” ‘Do you take attendance?’ the attorney insisted. ‘Do you issue grades?’
“I’ve seen a lot of strange things in two decades as a reporter, but nothing quite as disgraceful and weird as this inquisition the LAUSD is inflicting upon more than 80 school librarians.
” ‘With my experience, it makes me angry to be interrogated,’ Graff told me after the 40 minutes she spent on the witness stand, describing the work she’s done at libraries and schools going back to the 1970s.
” ‘I don’t think any teacher-librarian needs to sit here and explain how they help teach students.’
“Sitting in during two court sessions this week, I felt bad for everyone present, including the LAUSD attorneys. After all, in the presence of a school librarian, you feel the need to whisper and be respectful. It must be very difficult, I thought, to grill a librarian.
“For LAUSD officials, it’s a means to an end: balancing the budget.
“Some 85 credentialed teacher-librarians got layoff notices in March. If state education cuts end up being as bad as most think likely, their only chance to keep a paycheck is to prove that they’re qualified to be transferred into classroom teaching jobs.
“Since all middle and high school librarians are required to have a state teaching credential in addition to a librarian credential, this should be an easy task — except for a school district rule that makes such transfers contingent on having taught students within the last five years.
“To get the librarians off the payroll, the district’s attorneys need to prove to an administrative law judge that the librarians don’t have that recent teaching experience. To try to prove that they do teach, the librarians, in turn, come to their hearings with copies of lesson plans they’ve prepared and reading groups they’ve organized.
“Sandra Lagasse, for 20 years the librarian at White Middle School in Carson, arrived at the temporary courtroom Wednesday with copies of her lesson plans in Greek word origins and mythology.
“On the witness stand, she described tutoring students in geometry and history, including subjects like the Hammurabi Code. Her multi-subject teaching credential was entered into evidence as ‘Exhibit 515.’
“Lagasse also described the ‘Reading Counts’ program she runs in the library, in which every student in the school is assessed for reading skills.
” ‘ This is not a class, correct? ‘ a school district attorney asked her during cross-examination.
” ‘No,’ she said. ‘It is part of a class.’
“There is no class at your school called ‘Reading Counts’? Correct. ‘
” ‘No.’
“Lagasse endured her time on the stand with quiet dignity and confidence. She described how groups of up to 75 students file into her library — and how she works individually with many students.
“Later she told me:
” ‘I know I’m doing my job right when a student tells me, ‘Mrs. Lagasse, that book you gave me was so good. Do you have anything else like it?’
“It’s a noble profession. And it happens to be the only one Michael Bernard wants to practice.
” ‘It’s true, I’m a librarian and that’s all I want to be,’ said the librarian at North Hollywood High School, who has been a librarian for 23 years and has a master’s degree in library science.
” ‘ The larger issue is the destruction of school libraries,’ Bernard told me. ‘ None of the lawyers was talking about that.’
“School district rules say that only a certified teacher-librarian can manage a school library. So if Bernard is laid off, his library, with its 40,000 books and new computer terminals, could be shut down.
“Word of the libraries’ pending doom is starting to spread through the district. Adalgisa Grazziani, the librarian at Marshall High School, told me that the kids at her school are asking if they can take home books when the library there is closed.
” ‘ Can I have the fantasy collection? ‘ one asked her.
“If they could speak freely at their dismissal hearings, the librarians likely would tell all present what a tragedy it is to close a library.
“Instead, they sit and try to politely answer such questions as,
” ‘Have you ever taught physical education?’
“It doesn’t seem right to punish an educator for choosing the quiet and contemplation of book stacks over the noise and hubbub of a classroom or a gymnasium. But that’s where we are in these strange and stupid times.”
hector.tobar@latimes.com
Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland (former of a few Broad book club alumni) offers the following:
PGCPS Definition of Literacy:
Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak, listen, and use numeracy. In Prince George’s County Public Schools, our focus on literacy emphasizes the ability to:
1. Report, Evaluate, Gather, Synthesize, and Comprehend information and ideas (REGS-C);
2. Conduct original research in order to answer questions or solve problems (Original Research);
3. Analyze and create print and non-print texts in media forms (Media Forms);
4. Use numbers to process information, solve problems, and interpret data (Numeracy).
Of Course, library media specialists directly teach 1,2 and 3.
4 years ago, in order to save $3 million, Dr. William Hite Jr. had the county cut the number of LMSs in half. For the school year 2011-12, ES and MS LMSs worked 2 or 3 schools. A few schools saw two different LMSs one day each week. The county had paid for a number of these LMSs, as teachers, to get their masters in school library media, only to cut them. The first year, every school had a media specialist, but in subsequent years schools got a .5 LMS position and could pay for the other half. This year several schools do not have a LMS, as those still around got picked up full-time. But even when that occurs, the principal can take that LMS and make them do something else. One middle school lost their computer teacher due to illness, so they closed the library and had the LMS teach the computer classes. I was offered a FT position at one school, but I turned it down because I would teach library classes one week, then supervise students using a Study Island type program on computers (basically to give the classroom teachers another break.) Atleast 3 elementary schools with FT LMSs are doing that this year.
It’s sad.
Dear Diane – I hope you will help make this go viral — California is 51st in funding school libraries. My organization The California School Library Association made this video from many authors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjz3Sf0VD54&list=UUarz2JjUpuLKsEJw3wPU6eQ
We desperately need support in the richest state – 8th economy in the world apparently can’t be bothered with literacy. Except to fund CCSS, Pearson, Gates, et al.
Thank you.
Are we counting territories?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I wholeheartedly agree that a hallmarlk of a quality public school is an up-to-date and properly-staffed media center. But the question is, “When Budgets are Cut, Which Programs are the First to Go?”
When my children entered school in the early ’90’s, our elementary school had a big library w/a longterm FT librarian, & every class spent ample time there. When she became ill & retired, she was not even replaced for a while, throwing the library schedule into a tizzy. Fortuitously, a grade-school teacher on maternity leave happened to be a certified children’s librarian, & was eventually hired as a replacement– HALF-time. Library sessions were cut in half.
But let’s look at the same time period for other elementary sch disciplines. By the early ’90’s, regular outdoor recesses for all kids had already been winnowed down to half of lunch hour for all but kindergartners. The art room disappeared & art happened at classroom desks courtesy of a rolling ‘art cart’. Happy to report that thanks to huge public support we still had band instrument lessons (squeezed into 1/2 the kitchen). But early-foreign-language, begun in 2nd gr in 1997, was rolled back to 3rd, then 4th-gr start by 2000– in middle-class towns nearby, rolled all the way from K-start to the old 6th-gr start– tho in 3 hi-$ school systems nearby, world lang starts in K.
The absence of outdoor play/ physical recreation in American schools is a calamity I would place higher than even the loss of libraries. One needs regular oxygen to learn.
Library/media-center is crucial, as are art, music, foreign language. The later you start, the lower your research/ arts/ lang-speaking-ability will be at graduation.
Had the opportunity a few weeks ago, after attending an event at Los Angeles’ Central Library celebrating Union Station and the role of trains in LA, to detour into the Children’s Section of that lovely library. The Children’s Section is dramatically beautiful, intriguing and inviting with all kinds of spaces for individuals, families and classes to get lost in books. There is even a fabulous puppet theater. Murals extend above shelves and surround the walls, depicting classic stories. Huge windows and murals. Lets read a while, daydream for a spell. What a treasure! There are many libraries that people don’t know about or use (even when they are kinda aware the building is there). The kids are playing outdoors during the school day at the elementary level. Anyone remember “smog days” in the 80s when they had to stay in?