Jun 13 2011
LAUSD Library Staff Protest Deep Budget Cuts
Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 14 at 11 a.m. school library aides and their co-workers will be protesting library cuts. The library supporters will march from Gratts School to LAUSD headquarters to deliver more than 5,000 letters to the school board from parents, students and community members who oppose the severe cuts LAUSD libraries are facing. Their message: All students need school libraries to remain open and staffed with trained library personnel. There are approximately 1, 068,000 students including almost 396,000 adult school students enrolled in the LAUSD system. Covering an area of 710 square miles LAUSD has over 1,300 schools including among others elementary, middle, high schools, and adult education and regional education centers in its jurisdiction, and while we’ve heard much about teacher layoffs and other cutbacks in educational programs such as art and music not much has been said about the many other critical staff and their fight to maintain their jobs or even an acknowledgement of their tremendous contribution to the education system.
GUESTS: Juan De Varona, a Web Developer with LAUSD. He has worked for the district for more than nine years; Frances (Franny) Parrish, a Library Aide at Lowman Special Ed School in North Hollywood. She has worked for the district for four years and was an advocate for 17 years prior to joining the district.
5 Responses to “LAUSD Library Staff Protest Deep Budget Cuts”
Most parents do not even know that elementary school Libraries are run solely by the Library Aide. We are pushed aside and sent into the backround whenever budgets are discussed. We do not “Aide” anyone, we are the sole keepers and maintainers of our Libraries. Thank You for your time and consideration.
Rachel is correct how most people do not know that we are the ones who run the elementary school libraries. I was one of the ones cut 2 years ago to 3 hours a day and lost my insurance and was transferred to 2 other schools since then. I am staying because I love this job very much. I know I am making a difference in children’s lives and helping them have a love for books. Our schools all need libraries that are staffed from Elementary to High School. Thank you for reading.
Many studies show that a well stocked, well run school library is the most important mitigating factor that tends to balance out the negative effects of poverty on standardized test scores.
Library Aides are the biggest bargain in LAUSD.
Test scores will go down as a direct result the District’s robbing children of their Elementary Aides and Middle School Librarians. When that happens, do you know what LAUSD will do? They will hire more experts to discover what’s wrong with our schools!
The state education code section 18100 states that the funding of school libraries is the responsibility of the school district. LAUSD is ignoring this law.
The foundation to the success of an individual is being able to read and understand what the individual is reading early in life.
Practice makes perfect and perfection brings enjoyment this applies to all areas specially reading.
If access to the library is denied to students who may not have on opportunity to go to a public library the students are robbed of a success in their future.
All students need access to school libraries before, during and after school