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Thursday, June 24, 2010

Libraries fading as school budget crisis deepens - Boston.com

Libraries fading as school budget crisis deepens - Boston.com

Libraries fading as school budget crisis deepens

Fourth-graders Nick Phan, left, and Marcus Lee, right, visit in the school library at Kennydale, Elementary School, Tuesday, June 22, 2010, in Renton, Wash. The library will be open as usual next year, but at other schools across the country, administrators have started to view school libraries as luxuries that can be cut from school budgets.Fourth-graders Nick Phan, left, and Marcus Lee, right, visit in the school library at Kennydale, Elementary School, Tuesday, June 22, 2010, in Renton, Wash. The library will be open as usual next year, but at other schools across the country, administrators have started to view school libraries as luxuries that can be cut from school budgets. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
By Donna Gordon Blankinship
Associated Press Writer / June 24, 2010
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BELLEVUE, Wash.—Students who wished their school librarians a nice summer on the last day of school may be surprised this fall when they're no longer around to recommend a good book or help with homework.
As the school budget crisis deepens, administrators across the nation have started to view school libraries as luxuries that can be axed rather than places where kids learn to love reading and do research.
No one will know exactly how many jobs are lost until fall, but the American Association of School Administrators projects 19 percent of the nation's school districts will have fewer librarians next year, based on a


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