Chicago killing libraries for black students

Chicago Teachers Union  This week, the librarian at Daniel Hale Williams (DHW) School, housed at the DuSable High School campus along with Bronzeville Scholastic Academy and the DuSable Leadership Academy, was notified that her position has closed. With the closure of the library on that campus, a resource that has been in continuous existence since the founding of this historic school, the mayor’s hand-picked Board of Education has shut down the only functioning library staffed with a fully-certified librarian in a Bronzeville neighborhood high school....

“While it is not surprising that yet again, the burden of ‘broke on purpose’ budget cuts has fallen on the most segregated schools, this new disparity is alarming. CPS must restore these library programs,” said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey.

Over the last several years, the Chicago Public School’s dismantling of critical library programs has impacted every corner of the city, but has also led to a startling disparity where now only 7 percent (2 out of 28) of high schools with a student population over 90 percent African American has a library program staffed by a certified librarian. Across the 46 high schools with a majority African American student population, just 15 percent have librarians. In comparison, the dismal rate of librarian access across all CPS high schools is 32 percent. Such a deep disparity did not exist several years ago. In the 2012-2103 school year, 61 percent of high schools with a majority of African American students had a certified librarian on staff, compared to 69 percent across all district high schools.