I’ve never understood why, but education is one of the first places that budgets get cut. Likewise, I’ve never understood why teachers don’t make more money. Nothing is more important than the education of our children. Maybe it sounds trite, but they really are our future. Do we want poorly education children to become poorly educated adults? Especially when it falls to those poorly educated adults to make the important decisions about our world? Of course not. But no one seems to recognize that.
Our school district – along with most others in California and across the country – is facing major budget cuts. Our already overcrowded classrooms are being pushed to the limits. Teachers are being given pink-slips, sport programs are being cut, and the art programs are pretty much being eliminated.
As if that isn’t enough, our public libraries are taking major hits, too. My local library doesn’t have the best selection of novels for either myself (the romance section is pretty sad) or my teenage daughter (and the YA section is even worse), but they do have some amazing programs for both kids and adults. They also have some great ebook and audiobook lending options, which make their lack of print selection more bearable.
It depresses me that many of our nation’s libraries may be closing. I know Wendy and Mollie are both facing major budget cuts in their libraries.
But not all hope is lost. There are things you can do to help keep your library open. Carol Fitzgerald recently wrote a wonderful article for the Huffington Post detailing some things you can do to support your local library and hopefully keep it open.The best quote from that article, as pointed out to me by Mollie?
Someone told me that when economic times are tough there are two places you do not close — libraries and parks. People need to nurture their minds and their bodies.
I couldn’t agree with that more. I think we often take our libraries for granted. Now is the time to step up and show some Library Love!
Tell us, how is the library important to you?
Many thanks to Authors on the Web for the link!
Image credit CCPL
