Dr. Khalid Mumin is the Secretary of Education. Here are some of the comments and questions his team received:
Senator Elder Vogel (District 47, part of SNOE region) questioned why libraries were not mentioned at any point in the Department’s budget request booklet. Dr. Mumin replied that due to the focus on the court-mandated basic education funding changes, there wasn’t budgetary room this year but that libraries were still seen as integral parts of the educational ecosystem.
Representative Benjamin Sanchez (District 153, Montgomery County) also mentioned libraries, questioning what PDE was hearing from our public libraries about our needs and goals.
Our Analysis and What You Can Do
There were several trends in the questioning regarding all of PDE’s spending to pay attention to:
Accountability for PDE – Committee members wanted strong justifications for each value that was put forth
Projections – Committee members wanted to see what the projected costs would be to meet Commonwealth goals
Mandates – There were pointed questions about mandates and whether or not the Department of Education was accurately tracking and/or enforcing them.
What you can do:
Tell your representatives and senators how much an increase in state aid would help your community. What could you do with it? What benefits would your community see?
Respond to any of the data collection requests from the Office of Commonwealth Libraries or other state and municipal offices. These usually come to the Directors, but there are some that ask for broader community input.
What you should not do:
Ask for less accountability. The standards may not work for your library or community at this time, but the conversation should be on what indicates quality library service. Frame the conversation to share how your library’s services align with what their constituents need.
Have no stories or data to explain how amazing your library is!