Librarians are vital to classrooms

To the editor:

I am writing in response to your Nov. 14 editorial. My husband and I are not in favor of the 65 percent First Class Education plan.

Our main objection is it takes the control of how school funding is spent away from the local school boards and gives it to the state and federal government. We believe the local school boards are better able to determine the needs of their districts.

We are also concerned with what is considered classroom instruction.

Under federal guidelines, classroom instruction is salaries and benefits for teachers and instructional aides, textbooks, computers and supplies. Non-instruction is transportation, curriculum development, administration and salaries for nurses, counselors and librarians. Under the 65 percent plan, only 35 percent of a school's funding can be used for the non-instruction items.

Our daughter is a public-school librarian. Public-school librarians/media specialists in Missouri are required to hold classroom teaching certification as well as librarian certification.

School libraries and librarians plan an essential role across the curriculum. School librarians teach a variety of research and library skills that students will utilize throughout their academic careers.

Students will use libraries and the skills they have been taught long after they leave the walls of their local schools. We feel librarians should be included in classroom instruction.

The first lady, Laura Bush, was a public-school librarian before the married President Bush.

I am inclined to believe she would have considered herself a part of classroom instruction.

MYRNA R. POWERS, Cape Girardeau