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.”

This is a very disturbing story. Approximately 8,000 books were removed from the shelves of Mitchell Middle School in Racine, Wisconsin.

Initially, librarians expected that 2,000 books would be “weeded,” but the number grew to 8,000, including “books on the Holocaust, Hiroshima, the Bible, the Koran, and Beowulf. In the end, over 8000 books were removed from library shelves.”

The Racine Education Association says the district plans to “weed” tens of thousands of books from public school library shelves that were copyrighted before 2000 or that are not aligned with the curriculum.

“While this is being passed off as business as usual, some librarians, who have been around since the 90′s, have never seen this happen. They want to know why is this happening now.

“One teacher said it’s quite suspicious that a parent of Pearson Publishing just happened to give a list of recommended books to buy recently. “The REA/REAA presence at the Board of Education meeting comes after repeated efforts by school librarians and by the union’s leaders to get RUSD to explain why it has ordered the purge and why it refuses—thus far—to halt the weeding until alternatives can be developed by the school librarians,” according to a statement released by the union.

Eick said the librarians are at a loss on how the books will be replaced. “There is not nearly enough money to buy enough books to replace what has been lost,” Eick said.

According to Eick, the union is demanding that:

● RUSD stop the “weeding” of our school libraries and reverse damage done to library collections.

● RUSD implement an appropriate policy with certified librarians taking the lead. ● RUSD provide children with access to a wide variety of quality literature and information.

● The Board to exercise responsible stewardship of the community’s educational resources.

See more at: http://wisconsindailyindependent.com/8000-books-removed-from-racine-public-school-libraries/#sthash.VVo5L1g6.dpuf

Sarah Darer Littman bemoans the fact that our policy makers are willing to spend more on testing while many schools have no libraries or librarians.

When she said this to an elected official, he responded: “Where’s the evidence for the benefit of libraries?”

In this post, she supplies the evidence. She cited the studies showing that schools and students tend to have higher literacy if they have libraries.

Yet, as she also reports, budget cuts are closing the doors to literacy.