I’ve been thinking a lot about the role of school libraries and those who work in them recently. School Libraries often seem like little islands, with Teacher-Librarians usually working as solo librarians, lacking job-alike peers in the same building, with no real consistency in how they are staffed or funded even within the same school district—much less across the state or nation.
Additionally, Teacher-Librarians are as split as our hyphenated titles imply. We’re teachers, but we don’t have teams in our buildings the way other teachers do, and our jobs do not look like the job of a typical teacher. We’re librarians, but our roles encompass instruction much more consistently and directly than a typical public librarian. In this in-between, hyphenated world, I have found a role that I love, and one which I believe is essential for our K-12 students and the future. However, the isolated nature of my job sometimes leaves me missing a sense of community.
One way I’ve found my community is through my work with WLA. I’ve written about this before, and I still encourage you, reader, to get more involved with WLA as a way to expand your professional network and make connections with others who understand your daily challenges and victories. It is clear, though, that for school libraries and Teacher-Librarians to continue to serve students, we need to expand our communities beyond the library world.
That is why, one rainy weekend in mid-October, WLA Board Director - School Libraries Representative Elizabeth Roberts and I spent the weekend at the Washington State PTA Legislative Session. Elizabeth and I are both Teacher-Librarians, but we are also both parents to Washington K-12 students. We know both as educators and as parents the very real challenges facing Washington’s schools, and we know as librarians how severe budget deficits impact library programs. As of the 2022-23 school year, 60% of Washington’s 295 school districts did not employ even one part-time Teacher-Librarian. These numbers are getting worse, not better.
Our presence gave those in the PTA community an opportunity to learn about the challenges facing school libraries. It also afforded Elizabeth and me a chance to learn more about the broader funding issues faced by Washington’s K-12 schools. First, rising operational costs due to inflation in areas like insurance premiums, utility costs, and supplies have outpaced funding increases so much that schools now receive $1,000 less in state funding per student (adjusted for inflation) than before the pandemic. Second, schools in Washington face a significant gap between mandated, necessary Special Education services and state and federal funding for those programs. The rising cost of transportation, without increased funding from the state to cover those increases, is a third factor impacting every K-12 school district in Washington. This lack of legislative response to actual costs explains why so many areas of Washington are hearing about budget-reduction measures, even in places where bonds and levies historically pass.
The Washington State Constitution sets forth as its primary mandate fully funding K-12 public schools, but our elected officials are failing in this constitutional duty. Educational advocacy groups from across the state are working together to focus on the “big 3” shortfall areas in an attempt to throw a “Hail Mary” and save our public schools. While the Washington State PTA’s advocacy efforts around schools will primarily focus on funding those three areas in the upcoming legislative session, the group passed our resolution supporting strong school library programs and certificated Teacher-Librarians. This means the Washington State PTA network of supporters will add their voices in support of proposed legislation that strengthens school library programs. We successfully brought our school library and parent communities together to bring more awareness and support for our shared concerns.
To save public schools and help reinstate Teacher-Librarians, I need our readers to make sure everyone in both their library communities and their larger communities knows what is happening.
Here are two immediate steps you can take to help. First, educate yourself about the budget shortfalls in schools across the state, and reach out to your legislators to ask them what they are doing to solve the problem in the long term. Then, learn about the state of Washington’s school libraries in this brochure and share this information with your communities.
To create citizens of the future who are equipped with the essential media, digital, and information literacy required to maintain our democracy and to achieve their goals, we must come together as a library community and with the larger community to solve this problem. We must build bridges between the islands of our individual libraries and across what separates our different communities so that we expand our supporters and increase our impact. If we fail to act, it is likely that some of our libraries will sink under increased economic and cultural strain, never to reemerge.
Sarah Logan is the Teacher-Librarian at Dorothy Fox Elementary in Camas, Washington, and currently serves as the Washington Library Association Board President. Prior to moving to Washington in 2015, she was the Teacher-Librarian at Lynbrook High School in San Jose and earned her MLIS from San Jose State in 2012. Sarah has a reputation for actively participating in professional organizations and creating engaging, student-centered school library programs that promote authentic reading cultures. She is also a passionate advocate for access to quality school library programs and has been instrumental in the #K12Librarians4AllWA campaign, which seeks to increase the number of Teacher-Librarians in Washington’s K-12 public schools. She will continue to advocate for Washington’s students until they all have access to quality school library programs with qualified Teacher-Librarians.
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