Here & Now

Legislature Debates School Library Funding Bills

Frederica Freyberg:

Now this news from UW-Madison. Chancellor Rebecca Blank has announced that in-state students from families with incomes under $56,000 will be offered free tuition and fees. More than 800 students in each incoming freshman class and transfers will be covered. The cost will be $3.3 million covered by university funds and private donors.

Now to the state capitol and new legislation that would change how school libraries get their funding. Some school librarians are sounding the alarm over the potential loss of state dollars, while authors of the bill say it will give school districts more spending flexibility and local control. Multimedia journalist Marisa Wojcik takes a look at proposed legislation that would change funding from a pot of money dedicated to school libraries to allowing the money to be used where a district may need it most.

Librarian:

These are the books we have here right now.

Marisa Wojcik:

A pair of bills introduced in the state legislature last month would change the way state public school libraries have been funded for 170 years. Under current state law, dollars from what’s known as the Common School Fund are generated by income from state trust funds, money that goes specifically to Wisconsin school libraries. The only source of state aid they receive. The funds are managed by the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands or BCPL.

Duey Stroebel:

Right now BCPL is to generate money for the schools and specifically for the libraries in the schools. And now what we are looking at doing is — that was a mandate from the state. It’s been there a long time. What we’re looking at is let’s allow local officials the ability to decide how best to spend that money.

Marisa Wojcik:

How much money is it? In 2017, more than $32 million were distributed to Wisconsin school libraries based on their number of students. School librarians strategize how to use the funds. Wausau East High School’s Paula Hase used the Common School Fund money to pay for iPads to use digital drawing software or for Smart Music, an archive of digital music scores. For some Wisconsin librarians, the proposed changes take away the guarantee of funds that used to be supplemental but are now fundamental. In response to Senator Stroebel’s assertion that districts would still fund libraries, Madison librarian Mandy Meloy said it’s still not a guarantee.

Mandy Meloy:

I would like to just advocate too that this is a statewide Common School Fund, so even if my school board put these funds into the library, that leaves it wide open that other school boards may not. So this is a state fund that protects all state public school libraries K-12 in the state of Wisconsin.

Marisa Wojcik:

For some districts, the changes aren’t so alarming. At the Elmbrook School District located in suburbs west of Milwaukee, they are confident literacy will remain a priority districtwide.

Chris Thompson:

I think having the flexibility to spend the Common School Fund dollars on resources we prioritize through a planning process and again, under the leadership of our district library coordinator, you know, I think we’re very comfortable operating as we always have, even with the changes that are proposed in the bill.

Marisa Wojcik:

While there’s disagreement over how libraries are funded, many recognize maintaining funding for school libraries is important.

Kay Benning:

The state of Wisconsin, we have — because of the Common School Funds, we’ve been in a situation we have some of the best school libraries in the world. And a lot of it has to do with this steady funding source that we have.

Marisa Wojcik:

With increased flexibility in how the Common School Funds can be used, school districts under tighter budgets could choose to take the money out of the libraries and put it into other areas deemed more urgent. Long-term, librarians want to protect the integrity of the information they’re providing to students.

Dan Paese:

If we were to pull back the resources our students are accessing through let’s say our library home page and the electronic resources we have, they will not have access to those from the public library and they will not be able to get that from surfing — doing a Google search or surfing the web.

Marisa Wojcik:

For Lodi librarian Paula Tonn, access to key. Tonn says libraries are supposed to be the great democratic equalizers.

Chris Thompson:

The school library is changing. It is no longer just a place in a building. It’s anywhere, in the building and at home. And so we’ve spent many, many years trying to integrate the library with the students’ daily experience, both in school and out of school.

Frederica Freyberg:

That was Marisa Wojcik reporting. The legislation would also seek to invest school trust fund dollars less conservatively as well as eliminate a state loan program for local governments and school districts.