Save Spokane's Elementary School Librarians and Give Voice to Fully Funding WA Education

NOTE: The place to sign this petition is at the bottom of this page.

Spokane citizens are gravely concerned about the proposal to cut full-time librarians at ten elementary schools (Lidgerwood, Garfield, Roosevelt, Balboa, Westview, Ridgeview, Linwood, Indian Trail, and Holmes). Such a move would adversely affect nearly 4000 Spokane children. These students would be joining another 1,000 Spokane children that already lost full-time librarians in a budget cut three years ago (Franklin, Wilson, Pratt, Adams and Madison).

The cost of keeping full-time librarians amounts to less than 1% of the District's budget.

Teacher-librarians play an absolutely essential role in 21st century education. Among other things, they foster in children both the ability to access information as well as the critical thinking skills needed to use information correctly; they facilitate effective integration of technology into the school curriculum; they work in collaboration with classroom teachers to meet curriculum standards in the areas of technology and information literacy; and, perhaps most importantly, they foster a love of reading and learning in students of all ages.

The Spokane School District, the second largest District in the state of Washington, is facing a $10.7MM budget deficit. This deficit is, indeed, significant, and stems from problems at the federal, state and local levels. The Federal and State governments are under funding mandated programs, which has for years led the District to use levy money to make up the difference, over $10MM in last year's budget alone.

At the local level, Spokane, like many urban districts, is suffering from declining enrollment due to demographics and an exodus to suburban districts. A second local issue stems from Spokane's large medical sector; simply put, Spokane is Eastern Washington’s medical magnet for children with special needs. The city also receives a significant number of special needs children from the Fairchild Air Force Base Community; many military families with special needs children request to be stationed in Spokane because both the medical care and the School District’s programs are exceptional.

Several years ago, Congress made a promise to gradually increase federal funding to 40% of the average annual cost of a special education student. Coverage has stagnated around 19%. At the state level, special education funding is capped at 12.7%; Spokane registers over that cap. If special education had been funded above the cap in this last session, Spokane would have received $1,950,000 in 2007-2008. Instead, the cost will be covered by levy funds.

Although the crisis looms large, we have come to a juncture where funding for education, both at the state and federal level, stands to change. The Federal Government is in the process of updating the No Child Left Behind Act, and our own WA Senators describe increasing special education funds a top priority for this Congress. At a state level, a taskforce charged with updating the Washington State funding formula is forming next month, while a 'safety net' fund for special needs costs saw increased appropriations this year.

Given the fact that desperately needed changes are on the horizon, and considering the fact that the cost of keeping librarians is relatively small, cutting elementary school librarians is not a solution worth pursuing. The cost to our students, and our community, is simply too great.

In today's schools the library is the locus of both technology and information training. Cutting back to part-time librarian/clerks would gravely affect the computer and information literacy training so essential to graduating students who hope to become competitive members of the workforce.

Four of the ten schools slated for librarian cuts are Title I, and a fifth serves a 60% free and reduced-lunch demographic. Were it not for the training provided by our school librarians, most of these children would not have access to technology and information literacy training at all. Eliminating full-time librarians would most certainly result in these children being further marginalized- so much so they may never catch up.

The decision to erode a program that serves such an essential and visible function in our schools will compromise Spokane’s image for business recruitment and retention, will adversely affect future university placements, and stands to negatively impact the caliber of Spokane’s future workforce.

Many people choose to remain in or move to Spokane because of the family-friendly lifestyle residents enjoy, and exceptional schools are an essential component of this character. We feel strongly that cutting school librarians would, in a very clear way, undermine one of Spokane’s greatest strengths.