The people of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania should be ashamed: the entire school district has seven school librarians, maybe fewer. The charter lobby, like vultures, has stripped the district bare of all but the buildings (and itcesnts them too).
Recently a community raised $90,000 to reopen its library. O
http://www.philly.com/education/philly-school-library-bache-martin-friends-20190111.html
The Philadelphia Inquirer called it “a miracle” when the library reopened at an elementary school. But it was no miracle. It was the schools’ parents, who raised $90,000.
Then the Superintendent, Mayor, Congressman, et al had the nerve to show up at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. No shame! They gave not one red cent, not one bit of support.
The School District of Philadelphia has fewer than 7 school librarians.
Retired teacher Lisa Haven and retired school librarian Deb Grill wrote about why Philadelphia needs school libraries:
https://thenotebook.org/articles/2019/01/15/opinion-all-schools-and-all-students-need-libraries/
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Libraries are essential, and they are a democratizing force. They provide access to all types of print material that poor students do not have access to in their homes. If our goal is to educate, not just program bots, students should be well read including a variety of genres of both fiction and non-fiction. There is a lot of research showing a positive correlation between recreational reading and reading improvement. Every school deserves to have a lending library and qualified librarian. Considering that Philadelphia had the first lending library in the nation in 1731 that was started by Ben Franklin, it is disgraceful that the students of Philadelphia are being shortchanged.http://www.benjamin-franklin-history.org/lending-library/
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Libraries are indeed essential.
Why aren’t the “so-called” reformers NOT reading this and have no clue?
https://keithcurrylance.com/school-library-impact-studies/
http://www.ala.org/PrinterTemplate.cfm?Section=lance&Template=/ContentManagement/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=114201
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There’s plenty of solid research, which supports school and public libraries in a time when we need them more than ever.
Click to access Is-the-Library-Important.pdf
Click to access why_invest_in_libraries.pdf
Click to access library.pdf
Importance of Librarians:
http://www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk/2013/04/the-importance-of-librarians-and-libraries/
Libraries are NOT obsolete: https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2017/0814/Libraries-obsolete-No-way-say-Millennials
http://www.collegeonline.org/library/adult-continued-education/librarians-needed.html
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The leadership of Philadelphia is WRONG!
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Brick and mortar public libraries are an essential element for the survival of the United States as a Constitutional Republic. The US Constitution protects public libraries from censorship but there are no protections from censorship in the private sector Internet and/or brick and mortar book stores where any book can be easily censored and no one will know it even existed.
Thanks to the US Constitution it is not easy to control public librarians who are the 1st line of defense, the guardians of the 1st Amendment. While mob pressure from extremists of any kind might influence some librarians not to buy some books, it won’t pressure all public librarians. Many librarians will defy the mob when it comes to offering a selection of books that some deplorable people can’t stand.
But all private sector companies, Internet or brick-and-mortar, have gate keepers that are not there to protect and support the 1st Amendment. Their job is to boost profits.
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Great point Lloyd. Public libraries have also become a place of refuge for the homeless and latchkey kids. Some libraries are putting social workers in libraries to help troubled people that have no place to go. Some public librarians are now supplied with Narcan to combat opioid overdose, which, by the way is a huge problem in my old neighborhood in Philadelphia.https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/23/health/opioid-overdose-library-narcan/index.html
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Wait for it: The autocratic-oligarch libertarian-extreme right billionaires will start paying their PR departments to demonize libraries and librarians as places where illegal drug users run rampant.
Then a new chant built on hate, ignorance, and fear will be added to “Lock her Up”. It will be something like “Close the Libraries and make us Safe Again”.
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shades of book burning frenzies
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The “the Superintendent, Mayor, Congressman, et al” showed up at the ribbon cutting because they want to signal to parents that THIS is the way they need to organize if they want to have “frills” like libraries… These “frills” are paid for by de facto user fees instead of broad-based taxes the same way a gated community pays for its own police force. It’s called “the sharing economy” because those who can afford “frills” can share them with each other….
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Disgraceful about Philadelphia – but it is happening in many districts. People assume because there was a librarian in their school when they were growing up that there still is. In too many cases, there is not. Chicago PS is down to fewer than 140 librarians in 600+ schools.
The numbers are unclear because people who are not trained are being put in rooms with books and this is called a “library”. Not a sustainable or working model.
We librarians have tried to explain the research and statistics that show how important librarians are for print and internet literacy – this includes learning to distinguish facts from “fake news”. But the arguments about our educational importance either do not convince the school boards or there is no will to educate all students.
Check the schools where the school board members and politicians send their own children – they all have librarians.
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