PENN LIVE OP-ED: The media have declared education a winner in Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed budget. It calls for an approximate $400 million increase in basic education spending, $100 million more for special education and $120 million additional for early learning programs.
Libraries, by contrast, have been anointed as “losers” in the budget. The Library Access budget line that funds the ACCESS PA and POWER Library electronic resources that students and teachers use most, is slated to be cut more than eight percent.
This is just one more in a series of indicators that school libraries have been severed from education in the minds of decision makers. This is a mistake. It results in poorer readers and writers and that is not just opinion. Nearly two dozen research projects in 23 states have confirmed it, including a big study in Pennsylvania… (more)
