Responding to the '65 percent solution'
 |
|
Previous | Next | Table of Contents Librarians and library advocates also mounted campaigns in several states against what came to be known as "the 65 percent solution." Under this proposal, promoted by the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group First Class Education, school districts in states that pass resolutions or ballot initiatives must spend at least 65 cents of every school dollar on classroom instruction as defined by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics. This 30-year-old definition includes classroom teachers, activities such as field trips, sports, music, and arts . . . but not libraries or librarians, who were grouped with food, transportation and other non-instructional staff and services. Louisiana, Kansas, and Georgia have accepted "the 65 percent solution," and in Texas it was enacted by executive order of Gov. Rick Perry. Several other states are considering it. At the ALA Midwinter Meeting in January 2006, the ALA Council called for a coordinated national effort to classify school librarians as instructional staff and to recognize the impact of state-certified school librarians on student achievement. The ALA supported its main argument—that school libraries are classrooms and school librarians are teachers—with a reminder that "more than 60 research studies have found there is a clear link between well-staffed school libraries and increased student achievement." School library media specialists, along with parents and community members, took up the cause in letters to the editor and op-ed pieces in papers that included the Dallas Morning News, The New York Times and the Orlando Sentinel, as well as in news reports. As the battle raged on, First Class Education—which is active in about 20 states—said its goal is to have the 65 percent rule in place in all 50 states by the end of 2008.
|
