While I am primarily focused on academic librarianship and want to work in an academic library (in Michigan), I cannot help but be extremely concerned for the sake of the students in k-12 and public libraries. With the new administration in Michigan comes a new budget - one that is drastically considering cuts to public libraries and schools. This ultimately will affect the students that will be using the academic resources and libraries in which I hope to work.
With news today that Detroit schools will be cutting funding to the point where students might be forced into classrooms with 60+ students, I cannot ignore what this means for the state of libraries. We will be needed more than ever to provide our resources to those who need them most. I am always thinking about the ways that academic institutions, public libraries, and schools can work together to collaborate and share resources, and it seems this is incredibly important now more than ever.
What can we, as librarians - public and academic - do to advocate for appropriate funding and resources for students in our states, cities and counties? What can we do to help educate our children and ensure that they will have what they need to be successful, contributing young adults? What is our place in this atrocious state of budget cuts? What is our place in providing the tools that our young people need? There are the obvious ideas of protesting and sharing information about this, but practically, what is our role in this? Should we be building relationships across institutions (at ALL levels - between academic universities, community colleges, k-12 schools, and public libraries)? Should we be learning about this in our classes right now? Should SI hold a forum about our duties to the people who will need us in their communities?
I think all of the above are necessary to the success of our country. What do you think?
Ugh - I was just wringing my hands about the 60-student classes. I cannot imagine that this will improve the motivation, focus, or achievement of those students. Even more horrifying was this front-page Free Press story:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.freep.com/article/20110222/NEWS05/102220374/1001/NEWS/Many-Mich-high-school-grads-not-ready-college-data-show
Also, I was thinking about how many students missed school because budget cuts have reduced the funding for road maintenance ...
My dad (a veteran of K-12 administration) and I were going around and around about this at lunch today, trying to come up with answers -- or even possibilities. He said he had never seen a confluence of factors like we have now.
For now, one of my "solutions" is to keep working to make sure that when we DO have kids in our schools and libraries, we're really maximizing their ability to learn the kinds of skills, habits, and dispositions they'll need in order to deal with a world that keeps getting more and more complex. Fewer worksheets ... and no poorly-addressed stationery, please! More focus on deep learning and deep reflection.
And our class gives me great hope for the future of communities. You go out on a limb to think about how things could be different, as well as new ways to leverage resources. I can hardly have a single conversation outside of SI without mentioning how awestruck I am with your collective potential and empathy.
This one is definitely going to take a village to figure out, but I'm in for the discussion.
I heard that and wanted to storm the capital. What are they thinking? Someone pointed out that they always go after education and public workers, which made me wonder why that is. Is it because that's where most of the funding is? Why don't they cut budgets for roadwork? Or their paycheck? Grrrr.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. Definitely a frustrating situation, but Kristin, you've provided very practical ways to work with what is happening, and I really appreciate your thoughts!
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