the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Jul 21, 2025
In the past twenty years, Michigan has dropped from 30th to 44th in the country in 4th grade reading scores in the National Assessment of Educational Progress test (NAEP), known as the “nation’s report card.”
In that same time period, Michigan went from having over 1,400 certified librarians to five hundred—five hundred librarians spread over 539 school districts with nearly 3,000 schools and 1.5 million students. That boils down to only 9% of Michigan public schools having a full-time, certified librarian, and can mean one librarian may be covering six schools.
Certified librarians have advanced degrees in library science and other subjects and are key in teaching information literacy to older children—how to do thorough research, with knowing what the best source materials are.
Today we are seeing an uptick in attacks on funding for public education on the federal level with this current Republican administration. But the history of funding for public education, in Michigan and in this whole country, is one of budget shortfalls—for decades, during Republican and Democratic administrations—on the federal and state levels. According to the president of the Michigan Association of School Librarians, “When schools are making cuts, they often turn to the school libraries … We are working so hard to try to improve test scores and trying to get our literacy scores up … and then we cut libraries.”
Five hundred full time librarians today, vs. 1,400 librarians 20 years ago. But 1,400 weren’t enough even then. There should be no less than one school librarian in every school, if not more than one, depending on the size of the school. AND library assistants. And media specialists. And paraprofessionals.
For librarians and other staff are the people who bring literature alive to young people—history, science, nature, art, you name it. Librarians can open up worlds to young people—excite them about ideas.
Bottom line, they are vital in helping with literacy. Period.