L.A. Unified's budget scalpel cuts into school libraries - latimes.com

L.A. Unified's budget scalpel cuts into school libraries - latimes.com:

Throwing the book at school libraries

L.A. Unified lays off library aides and slashes their hours when it should be addressing huge reading deficiencies.

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Library aide Mary Bates reads “The Giving Tree” to students at Burton Elementary School. Her hours are being cut and she is losing her health benefits.(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

By Steve Lopez

September 14, 2011

It's September, a time to remind children that we care about them and have high hopes and all that.

So what's going on in Los Angeles Unified?

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The school district is dumping 227 of its 430 elementary school library aides and cutting the hours of another 193 aides in half.

Welcome back to school, kids.

At Burton Elementary in Panorama City on Tuesday morning, library aide Mary Bates was