California: 100,000 Los Angeles Elementary Students Still Without Libraries

From KPCC Radio:

About 40 percent of Los Angeles Unified elementary schools still lack the staff to open libraries, leaving about 100,000 students without a way to borrow books on campus, according to figures recently released by the district.
During budget hearings last spring, Superintendent John Deasy promised to spend $6 million to bring back the 192 library aides who would help open shuttered elementary libraries across the district this school year.
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“Students don’t learn literacy skills (in the library). They learn that through trained teachers,” Deasy told KPCC in 2011, after the cuts were announced.
But despite a commitment to rehire staff, the number of elementary library aides have decreased by about 20 percent since last fall.

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Filed under: Libraries, School Libraries