Bills requiring Michigan schools to have libraries and certified librarians get first hearing

Michigan Library Advocacy Day at the Capitol, April 16, 2024 | Susan J. Demas

A package of bills that would require a library and certified librarian in every Michigan public school got its first hearing Tuesday.

Introduced last month by state Sens. Darrin Camilleri (D-Trenton) and Rosemary Bayer (D-West Bloomfield), the bills came before the Senate Education Committee and were met with a mostly positive reception. 

Camilleri opened up the testimony by noting he had been working on the bill package for six years and was grateful it was finally getting a hearing.

State Sen. Darrin Camilleri (D-Brownstown Twp.), March 14, 2023 | Laina G. Stebbins

“I remember the school library being one of the best parts of being a student, especially in elementary school, but even in high school as well, where I could pull out a book, talk about it with my librarian and explore a new idea or a new concept or just read something for fun,” said Camilleri. “And there are far too many situations where students don’t have those opportunities anymore, where that love of learning is not fostered in that space and we need to do something about it, which is why we’re here today.”

The three-bill package includes Senate Bills 741 and 742, both sponsored by Camilleri, that would require every school district in Michigan to offer a library that is accessible to students and offers resources in both electronic and print form, while also employing at least one certified school librarian, with varying requirements depending on enrollment numbers.

Senate Bill 743, sponsored by Bayer, would require a principal or other appropriate administrator to designate an individual to supervise students in a school library when a certified media specialist is not present.

Camilleri said his awareness of this issue began when he was a high school teacher in southwest Detroit, and was shocked to find that the school did not have a library where students could go to check out books. 

“They had a room with computers, but not a single book was in that room,” he said. “Before that, I thought every school had a library, that was a given. But as I would continue to look into this issue more deeply in the years that followed, I came to find how common this is becoming in schools across our state, especially with the proliferation of the internet and digital resources, school libraries are increasingly being seen as an afterthought.”

Camilleri said the argument that school libraries no longer have relevance in the internet age is completely missing the point.  

“In my opinion, the exact opposite is true. You need to have those materials in front of our students now more than ever,” he argued, adding that with a certified full-time librarian, students would also have the opportunity to learn research skills, have a safe space to learn and hopefully develop a lifelong love of reading.

Camilleri said less than 10% of Michigan schools that have school libraries are staffed by a certified full-time school librarian. 

“And our reading scores remain low. It’s another piece here that’s so important. This is an equity issue,” he said. “If you want to help improve literacy outcomes, we need to help all students have the resources they need to succeed, including grade level aligned texts and knowledgeable accessible school librarians.

Bayer added that now more than ever there is a need for students to learn how to properly access information and know where to find quality sources.

“In addition to books, we have this whole world of sometimes misleading, just plain wrong information and we need some help and our kids need some help,” she said.

“How do we navigate that? How do we make sure that they know how to see what it is, understand what it is they’re really seeing?”

Sen. Ruth Johnson at the State of the State address, Jan. 29, 2020 | Andrew Roth

While various members shared fond memories of their experiences in school libraries, state Sen. Ruth Johnson (R-Holly) did express concern about how such a mandate might affect small, more rural districts.

To that point, Camilleri said that one of the challenges he has faced in crafting the bills is that there isn’t definitive data about which schools offer school libraries, and which ones have fully certified school librarians staffing them. However, he did note that the bills have different implementation standards depending on population requirements.

Schools with fewer than 300 pupils, at least one half-time certified school librarian would be required, while a school with between 300 and 1,499 pupils would need at least one full-time certified school librarian. Those schools with 1,500 or more pupils, meanwhile, would require at least two full-time certified school librarians. However, schools with fewer than 51 students could obtain a waiver from the Michigan Department of Education to opt out of the requirements altogether. 

Other issues raised concerned the potential cost of implementing the bills. An analysis from the nonpartisan Senate Fiscal Agency determined that the bills could cost school districts across the state as much as $403.7 million per year, although those costs could be lower depending on what applicable resources districts were already budgeting for.

“When we are at times of extreme economic downturn, I’m concerned about putting a mandate in that will then force schools to cut teacher salaries, cut transportation, and have the library held whole,” said Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City). “So when we have to make really tough choices, are there ways that we don’t lose teachers in order to have a staff library? I don’t love that choice, but it is a reality that at some point in time we are likely to get into that situation again.”

Camilleri said that at least a portion of the funding would hopefully come directly from the state, noting that the proposed budget reported Tuesday morning out of the Pre-K-12 Appropriations Subcommittee invested $25 million in school libraries.

“Is there a need for more? Absolutely,” he said, adding that they hoped to talk with school districts already meeting the standards and figuring out how to build those costs into their budgets.

Another issue discussed was the capacity to hire enough certified school librarians. Committee Chair Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia),  a public school teacher for more than 20 years, said there was only one Michigan educational prep institution offering a media endorsement course for certified teachers and it only had about 20 openings each year.

“So there may be a necessity to move the implementation date ahead a little bit just in order to accommodate the ramping up that’s going to be needed to see this to fruition,” she said.

“We’re open to all creative solutions to get this bill passed,” replied Camilleri, who also indicated he was flexible in potentially adding into the legislation the ability of some districts to share certified librarians.

Also testifying in favor of the bills was Kathy Lester, the immediate past president of the Michigan Association of School Libraries, who said approximately 49% of Michigan schools have no library staff, while Michigan is ranked 46th in the nation in terms of the ratio of students to certified school librarians. 

Michigan Library Advocacy Day at the Capitol, April 16, 2024 | Susan J. Demas

“This correlates very closely with our low literacy achievement scores,” she said, calling it a matter of equal access for students. 

Amy O’Brien, a parent and former substitute teacher living in Wayne County’s Van Buren School District assisted in the Belleville High School Media Center last year, after their full-time librarian had left just before the COVID-19 pandemic and was not replaced. 

“Being a substitute in the library gave me a broader perspective than what I had had as a parent,” she told the committee. “A school library is a safe space. It doesn’t expect a student to be in a certain learning group or functioning at a certain academic level. It meets our children where they are at, no exceptions.”

However, the library was only open when she was present on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and because she wasn’t a certified school librarian, she wasn’t able to give the staff or students the full support that they would have if she had been, including expertise in the selection of resources, as well as teaching lessons on information literacy and integrated technology.

“I believe that all parents want their children to have a complete and equitable academic base for their studies,” said O’Brien. “That includes having a fully staffed library with a certified librarian in every school from kindergarten through 12th grade. The teaching and support that certified librarians provide should not be abandoned. Student success depends on it.”

The post Bills requiring Michigan schools to have libraries and certified librarians get first hearing appeared first on Michigan Advance.