9486 in the collection
17,000 kids have no school library
Ohanian Comment: Every teacher in America should weep for children who do not have access to a library. Please write IRA and NCTE, imploring these organizations to issue strong statements of concern and condemnation against a school authority (in this case Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein) that allows this outrage to occur.
Ask the leaders of our professional organization to show their leadership. NOW.
Libraries are the best place to start this public display of leadership. How threatening can it be to someone to stand up and say that kids need access to books?
For starters, send people to Stephen Krashen's research on the importance of libraries. You can start here.
I don't suggest sending this call to action to the AFT or the NEA because they have proven themselves way beyond even pretending to care about what matters to children. But perhaps there's still a smidgeon of hope left with NCTE and IRA. Try them and see what happens. Give them this opportunity to show leadership. You might suggest that they establish a Hall of Shame for school districts that do not ensure that every child has access to a well-stocked library with the services of a professional librarian.
Here are members of the NCTE Exectutive Committee.
Here is the IRA Board of Directors.
By Meredith Koloner
More than 17,000 students in at least 42 schools in the poorest sections of the Bronx lack library access due to budget cuts and overcrowding, the Daily News has found.
Educators say the books, computers and research expertise found in a school library are crucial for literacy and college preparation.
"We don't have room for one," said Lureta Jones, PTA president at Public School 16 in Wakefield. "We have so many kids, we have to use the space for classrooms."
The News reported last month on the Monroe High School campus, which has no library services because of a long-delayed renovation effort.
Other schools don't have functioning libraries because the space is being used as a classroom or because there's no librarian.
An additional 4,000 students haven't had libraries for the past year. The Education Department promises they will be in place by next year.
"We need a library because we need to use computers to write our papers," said Nyaisia Wilson, a senior at the High School for Violin and Dance in the Morrisania section.
"It's being used as a classroom so you can't take books out," Wilson said.
The library at the Mohegan School, in the Bronx's West Farms neighborhood, is shuttered because there is no librarian.
The only certified librarian on the Evander Childs campus, serving more than 2,700 students, is working as a substitute English teacher.
"What if you don't have a computer in your house?" asked Malcolm Meyers, 14, a ninth-grader at Pelham Preparatory High School in the Northeast Bronx. The library there is closed for renovations.
Crotona Academy in the South Bronx is housed in trailers and has no space for a library.
The Foreign Language Academy for Global Studies in Morrisania also has too many students to make room for a library.
"We're committed to ensuring that all students have access to an outstanding school library," DOE spokesman William Havemann said in a statement.
"We strongly discourage schools from converting their library into classroom space, but we know that in rare cases, principals may temporarily have to do so."
He said that the DOE will create 10,000 new seats in the Bronx by 2012 to reduce overcrowding.
At PS 16, Jones said they are looking for private companies to adopt the school.
mkolodner@nydailynews.com
— Meredith Koloner
New York Daily News
2008-12-11
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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