Birmingham School Librarians
Fight for Book Funds
Upset over a proposal to spend $1.7 million normally dedicated to textbooks and library enhancement to preserve the jobs of 45 teachers, some 25 school librarians in Birmingham, Alabama, conferred with officials in a special meeting September 18. School superintendents have asked to use the state-mandated $135-per-teacher allocation for library materials to pay salaries. School finances have been squeezed since February when Gov. Don Siegelman called for a 6.2% reduction in state education funds.
“We’re not a bunch of wide-eyed rabble-rousers,” Ramsay High School librarian Judy Armstrong said in the September 19 Birmingham News. “Most of us are soft-spoken librarians who are frustrated because we can’t get the funds we need to provide for our children and our teachers.”
The librarians are also questioning some administrative salaries and purchases such as laptop computers and wide-screen televisions. “Our school system is spending money for a great many items other than library books in this time of proration, and school libraries have been so marginalized in this system that we fear for their very existence,” Armstrong told the News.
The state allows local school districts to transfer funds to deter layoffs when budget cuts due to flagging tax revenues are required. Deputy Superintendent Abbe Boring said that libraries could use other money such as federal Title I funds for books.
Posted September 24, 2001.
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