By Josh Kruger

– In a startling analysis for the Inquirer, Kristen Graham reports that over the course of 24 years, the Philadelphia School District has destroyed its librarian population by a stunning 94 percent. A thorough look at the exact nature of Philly’s schools crisis as it pertains to its libraries, Graham writes that “in 1991, there were 176 certified librarians in city schools. Now there are 11—for 218 schools.”

The fact that Philly’s ever-beleaguered school district is in dire straits isn’t surprising; after all, when news broke that the district was closing libraries in its flagship schools, Philadelphia Weekly‘s editor-in-chief Stephen Segal called the move a declaration “of war” and a “failure of basic civilization.” It’s not just a symbolic assault on knowledge, though: Having a paid librarian on staff in a school is a proven way to help students.

In fact, one comprehensive study conducted in Pennsylvania and reported by the School Library Journal revealed in 2013 that “reading and writing scores are better for students who have a full-time certified librarian than those who don’t” and that “students who are economically disadvantaged, black, Hispanic, and have IEPs (i.e., students with disabilities) benefit proportionally more than students generally.”

Basically, having staffed libraries in schools is critical to closing what are known as “achievement gaps.”

Other findings of that study include the fact that students “who are poor, minority, and have IEPs, but who have full-time librarians, are at least twice as likely to have ‘Advanced’ writing scores [on standardized tests] as their counterparts without full-time librarians.” In addition, “the benefits associated with larger staffing and collections and increased access to technology, databases, and to the library itself are proportionally greater for students who are poor, black, Hispanic, and disabled.”

After all, learning how to access and analyze information is critical to advancing knowledge. “People don’t know how to look at information,” Free Library of Philadelphia president Siobhan Reardon told Philadelphia Weekly late last year. “It’s why libraries are important in the first place.”

The failure—or refusal—of officials to address the schools crisis has led other public entities, like the Free Library, to step in, though. In that same interview, Reardon went on to say that the “education system is challenged across [the nation]” in urban America.

“I actually feel that we in the Philadelphia Free Library have a better relationship with the school district here [than in other cities],” Reardon insisted, “because the superintendent has been like, ‘I’m taking whatever help I can get to help these kids.’” Reardon indicated that the challenges faced by the district are multifaceted and that the public library system will do whatever it can to help pick up the slack.

Still, it’s depressing to know that the Philadelphia School District has lost nearly all of its librarians—and even more saddening to assess the likely damage to local students wrought by that decision.

And, no matter how much the public libraries want to helps the schools, there exist financial realities that make that civic obligation to schoolchildren all that more onerous. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, state legislators in Harrisburg recently cut 50 percent of public library funds to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

With that in mind, it’s a mystery just how much help those organizations can provide to the starved schools.

What’s certain, however, is that cutting paid librarians doesn’t do Philly schoolchildren any favors.

Source: http://phillynow.com/2015/02/02/report-the-school-district-has-cut-librarian-population-by-94-percent/