I was a DCPS school librarian before Kaya Henderson decided to cut the librarian position out of the “required staffing” budget. My position was cut to part-time.

Her justification for cutting funding was that, “We have invested in full-time librarians for the last three or four years and we haven’t seen the kind of payoff we’d like”. The amazing thing is, DCPS libraries have not had a budget to purchase important technology or current materials.

If we use her “logic” we could say the same thing about her position at DCPS with her $275,000 income and $12,500 signing bonus. In addition, the same could be said about Master Educators (they evaluate teachers under the IMPACT) who earn $90,000-$95,000 and have no contact with students and their education.

All stakeholders need to get involved with the education of our city’s youth. Librarians do not just provide books, we provide students, parents, and teachers with the tools to become wise users of information.

Please support the students’ of DCPS by signing petitions and spreading the word:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/14/dc-schools-librarians_n_1753871.html

Let’s be fair to librarians! I have no doubt that admin and teachers alike changed answers, and continue to change answers, to assuage pressure from the District. But most of the false gains reported were amazingly high. High enough that it was hard not to question. In other words, it wasn’t the 14% gains that were suspicious.

That said, librarians scaffold and solidify learning the way only they can. Librarians are the ones who offer the resources, show students how to attain information and connect them to (sometimes) the only things that students will bring home- choice books. I know I am smarter when I read and a good librarian, like Ms. Woodard, allows students to be smarter.

Shame on the District, with its top-heavy Board of Ed filled with those who have taught for fewer years than the teachers they are supervising and ridiculous “standards” that make teachers jump through hoops and afraid to really implement anything that could help students actually learn. Kaya Henderson is continuing Michelle Rhee’s legacy with a smile on her face, so most people don’t notice the continuation of corporate policy that focuses on test scores and leans on Teach for America-yuppie- wunderkinds who stay for a year or two as street cred before securing think tank jobs.

Librarians are the people that students lean on, talk to and question before and after school and at lunch. The ones who offer a book or a smile to explain the human experience that students can relate to. Cutting librarians not only shows the low priority of literacy, it also illustrates the low priority of empathy.