When librarians are the first to go, CPS students lose out

Librarians have often been among the first positions to be cut when Chicago Public Schools struggle with enrollment decline and funding loss.

By Sarah Stark
Mary Beck inside school library
Nicholas Senn High School Principal Mary Beck talks to IB English students at Nicholas Senn High School in the Edgewater neighborhood, Friday afternoon, April 23, 2021. Pat Nabong / Chicago Sun-Times
Mary Beck inside school library
Nicholas Senn High School Principal Mary Beck talks to IB English students at Nicholas Senn High School in the Edgewater neighborhood, Friday afternoon, April 23, 2021. Pat Nabong / Chicago Sun-Times

When librarians are the first to go, CPS students lose out

Librarians have often been among the first positions to be cut when Chicago Public Schools struggle with enrollment decline and funding loss.

By Sarah Stark
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In addition to building libraries, librarians provide crucial education in technology and media literacy at Chicago Public Schools. But only around 90 of the district’s 513 schools have full-time librarians, and majority Black schools on the city’s South and West sides are hit the hardest by this shortage.

Reset learns more about what’s behind the decline with a reporter and two librarians who were recently laid off.

GUESTS: Nader Issa, Chicago Sun-Times education reporter

Nora Wiltse, former librarian at Coonley Elementary School

Leslie Westerberg, former librarian at Nixon Elementary School