The Milwaukee Public School System, while not an exemplar of budget efficiency, does NOT need this kind of help from Wisconsin's Department of Public Instruction:
State officials have given Milwaukee Public Schools 14 months to ensure that every school library is overseen by a licensed librarian - something that has not been happening at about three dozen MPS schools.
The Department of Public Instruction on Monday released results of its investigation of a 2-year-old complaint from the Milwaukee teachers union that many schools were violating rules calling for schools to use certified librarians.
"DPI learned that not only were many schools without services of certified library media specialists, but that several schools had library facilities that were not open and freely accessible to students during the school day," the report says.
MPS Superintendent William Andrekopoulos said the number of librarians has gone down as individual schools decide how to use the money they are allocated.
"Schools have to prioritize," he said, and the choices are often between classroom teachers and specialists such as art teachers, music teachers, social workers - and librarians.
It's long been known that "certifications" and "licenses" for certain occupations are merely restraint-of-trade under color of law and regulation. Teachers' unions have learned to play that game, too, and that has jacked up the associated costs-of-compensation.
Problem is, the money's not there anymore.
I am like you in that I am a conservative thinker; however, schools thrive when there is a good library program. DPI has a report on this very issue done by an outside agency. Look at a school that has a thriving library and you see a school whose students read and write well and do better on those silly standardized test.
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