School library grants should be reinstated

We may be in the heart of summer, but it's not too early to begin thinking about what the Indiana GeneralAssembly ought to be doing when it reconvenes in January for its budget-writing long session.

A coalition is at work to see that the School Library Printed Materials Grant be reinstated. The dollar-for-dollar matching grant program provided $6 million annually in state money for schools to purchase books and other printed materials for their libraries. Yes, we aren't ashamed to say that among the materials purchased were newspapers.

The General Assembly launched the program in the 1997-98 school year and killed it after the 2001-02 year ended. Not only would we encourage the Legislature to reinstate the grant, but also increase the amount of available funding.

With ever-tightening school budgets, school libraries often come out on the short end of the budgetary stick. Although public school systems are required to spend $8 per student annually on their library programs, that money often is eaten up by salaries of library staff, leaving nothing for the purchase of new books and other reading materials.

In 1995, before the funding of the School Library Printed Materials Grant, a study indicated that the average school library book was printed in the 1960s. It doesn't take much analysis to realize that is punitive to the students needing reading materials.

Another study by the same organization indicated that since the grant ended, book purchases and circulation numbers declined dramatically.

Gov. Mitch Daniels and some legislators have said they expect education to be the prime focus of the 2007 session.

A strong library is an essential part of the education success of any school.

Post-Tribune, Merrillville