Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Rachel Cohen, Activist from Librarians = Literacy
3:51:39
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170 sec
Rachel Cohen, a parent and activist, testifies about the critical shortage of school librarians in New York City public schools. She emphasizes the importance of librarians for students' education and calls for action to address this issue.
- Cohen shares her personal experience of discovering her daughter's school lacked a librarian, which she learned is common across NYC schools.
- She highlights that only about 260 certified school librarians serve NYC's 1,600 public schools, despite state mandates for some schools to have librarians.
- Cohen advocates for the passage of Intro 1125-2024 (the "librarians count bill") and calls for further action to staff and fund certified librarians in all NYC public schools.
Rachel Cohen
3:51:39
Good afternoon.
3:51:40
My name is Rachel Cohen.
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I'm the parent of a first grader at PS two sixty one in Boreham Hill, Brooklyn and an activist with the public school parent campaign, Librarians Equal Literacy, which is fighting to bring back school librarians in all New York City public schools.
3:51:55
Before my daughter started kindergarten last year, I just assumed that the library in her school was staffed with a school librarian and she'd get to go there at least once a week just like I did growing up as a public school student in a very small town in New Jersey.
3:52:10
Soon after the school year started, however, I was excited to see there was a Banned Books Week event planned in the library.
3:52:16
But it was at that event that I learned our school had not had a librarian for over a year and the library was being used as a meeting room.
3:52:24
I also learned that our school was not the exception but the norm.
3:52:28
New York City public schools had lost about 80% of their librarians over the last twenty years.
3:52:33
Like me, many families often assume a certified librarian is still a given in their child's school.
3:52:40
But New York City's Sixteen Hundred public schools only have about two sixty certified school librarians on staff, some other small number as different people have said today, leaving the vast majority of schools lacking librarians.
3:52:54
Without certified librarians in place students miss out on the numerous data backed educational benefits of an active school library program.
3:53:02
Having librarians is proven to boost school wide literacy, research skills, test scores, and graduation rates.
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And in this climate of censorship, librarians also safeguard students freedom to read.
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Many of the librarian list schools throughout the city include middle and high schools which are mandated to have librarians under New York State law and high poverty schools are even less likely to have a librarian in their budget.
3:53:27
A school library is the best, most equitable opportunity for many students to access and learn to navigate and evaluate an array of books, media, and information technology.
3:53:39
The librarians count bill as we've taken to calling intro eleven twenty five is a crucial first step.
3:53:46
We need to know the size and shape of the librarian loss problem before we can fix it, But we need to go farther.
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We don't need to just know the problem.
3:53:57
We need to really address it.
3:53:59
And Librarians Equal Literacy is calling on the mayor, the chancellor, the city council to acknowledge the data backed school wide benefits of certified librarians, commit to safeguarding all students right to access and freely read from a robust collection of diverse books, media and information technology, and staff and fund certified school librarians in all public schools in all neighborhoods and districts in New York City, not just the wealthiest.
3:54:28
Thank you.