Paige Cornwell at the Seattle Times wrote about how Seattle Public Schools doesn't fund its libraries.
In Seattle, the differences in libraries between have- and have-not schools are most extreme at the elementary level, with $28 per student separating the lowest- and highest-funded schools, according to the librarians’ survey.
The members of that group won’t say which schools are at the top and bottom because they agreed, as they collected information, not to reveal the schools’ names. They worried that identifying them might make it seem like they were blaming the librarians, principals or school PTAs.
But they are releasing data about the difference in spending among schools — which ranges from $1.69 per student to $29.88.
“The district needs to realize there are some schools without PTAs, and it’s just not fair,” Eads said.
Many thanks to the Seattle Times for reporting on this important story. We at the Seattle Review of Books originally wrote about the disparity of Seattle Public School libraries two months ago.