Columbus (Ohio) Public Schools will purchase a quarter of a million new books for school libraries this spring under a $4.6-million plan announced February 20 by Superintendent Rosa Smith.
A 1999 curriculum-management audit of the school system had found inequities in the way resources were distributed to schools with students of varying economic backgrounds: In some elementary schools, there were only five or six books per student, while other schools had over 30. In an effort to equalize those resources, the district plans to use $3.4 million in general-fund money to increase the ratio to at least 10 books for each student at every school, the Columbus Dispatch reported February 21.
In addition, the district will use $1.3 million in federal Title I money to buy 68,000 extra volumes to increase the ratio of books to students at schools with a higher concentration of poverty. According to deputy superintendent of business and operations Gene Harris, this is the first time such federal money has been used to purchase library books.
Posted February 26, 2001.