Teachers' Union Boss Says Every Philly School Needs A Library
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The head of Philadelphia's teachers' union is calling on the school district to put a library -- with a librarian -- in every city school.
Every Pennsylvania state prison has a library, so why not every city school, asks Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Jerry Jordan.
"What I would like to see is for the students in the Philadelphia School District to get the same kinds of services that the inmates in Pennsylvania's 26 state correctional institutions receive," Jordan (above) said on Tuesday.
School district spokeswoman Shana Kemp says 98 of Philadelphia's 258 schools -- that's about 38 percent -- have fully functioning libraries. And for many principals, she says, it's a choice of limited resources.
"It always comes down to money," said Kemp. "Every school in the district has a certain budget allotted for books and for librarians and how they're staffed."
But Jordan says with fewer hours at city libraries, libraries in schools are all the more necessary.
Reported by Mike DeNardo, KYW Newsradio 1060.
