State Owes Debt of Gratitude to School Librarians

This speech was delivered by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Jill Underly, at the Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association (WEMTA) Conference on March 2, 2024.

Our school libraries are welcoming, exciting places where kids can experience great stories and important histories and engage with big ideas, try new activities, and stretch their imaginations, and where they can be their full, authentic selves without judgment. What a gift our school libraries are – spaces of curiosity and exploration.

At this moment in our history, we need this gift, these spaces to engage with new ideas and our history– we need it especially in the face of attempts at division, increased threats on the freedom to read, and sad attempts at silencing diverse voices.

When we see the ratcheting up of attempts at censorship, and all of these disinformation attacks against school libraries, we should be very, very worried. Censorship is suppression, an attempt to control, and it is anathema to the exploration and engagement we find in school libraries. It is, in fact, a direct attack on democracy.

And I know you know, these attacks and these attempts at disinformation threaten the very existence of inclusive spaces.

We, together, want to welcome all students. All kids.
We want to do what is best for kids.

We should not allow anyone to weaponize or politicize the very existence of kids, and we should not accept any attempt to stop libraries from welcoming all as their authentic selves.

These spaces were so important to me growing up. From my elementary school library all the way to studying in the university stacks – libraries and media centers are a space to engage with new ideas and to find community.

These spaces are now critical to my kids today, including my son with special needs. He can be his full self in these spaces.

This is why school libraries – and the staff who make them hum, including licensed library media specialists – are so important.

So how do we protect the exploration, inclusion, and authentic joy that our school libraries provide?

First and foremost, we must raise our voices without fear – to ensure that the forces of division and hate don’t hold sway. And, frankly, we can protect these spaces, by providing needed funding for the resources you provide. Yes, that includes the Common School Fund. I was honored to be able to help present the Common School Fund check this year – a check that was made out for 65 million dollars! But it also includes advocating for more funding.

At a time when the state has record surpluses, and chronic underfunding has meant the vast majority of school districts around the state have gone, or are going, to referendum, in order to provide basic services… well, we just must convince the Legislature to invest more in our schools. I’ve called for increasing special education reimbursement to 60%, for more funding for mental health and school nutrition, for reform of the funding formula. More money means more for our ability to serve kids.

And let me be clear – every district needs strong, licensed, library media specialists. I hope you all join your voices with mine to tell legislators we cannot effectively serve kids, unless we have the state resources to do the job.

So let me say this to you here in this room with us today, and also to school library staff across our state – all of you who provide our children the freedom to explore and the resources to make it possible.

I know you carry the responsibility of curating these resources for exploration and creating these welcoming spaces, and it is a big responsibility.

I am grateful for your work, for your professionalism, and for the future you help create for this state. All of Wisconsin owes you a debt of gratitude, and I hope the Common School Fund makes your job easier, and that DPI continues to be a strong partner to you, and that your daily work continues to be even more meaningful and joyful.

I also hope you are reaching out to each other in friendship and professional support.

I know you have an incredible professional who supports you – the WEMTA Professional of the Year, in fact – in my colleague Monica Treptow, our school library consultant at the Department of Public Instruction, so I want to take a moment to honor Monica's work here in a rather specific way.

I know this is a difficult time to be a school librarian, not to mention the school library consultant in Wisconsin, and I also know that Monica is a huge Andrea Gibson poetry fan. Andrea Gibson is a spoken word poet and Colorado’s poet laureate, and they tell this wonderful story about caterpillars in one of my favorite poems:

On Earth, everyone loved butterflies,
But I trusted the caterpillars more.
I trusted the ones who knew
They were not done growing.
On earth, I was a work in progress,
Was comforted in the knowing

That I had a million mistakes still in me
To learn from.... after all, who wants to be today who they were yesterday?

What a beautiful thing to say about the importance of personal growth and being a learner throughout our lives.

And isn’t that what school libraries – and the incredible people who work in them – instill in us? They give us the understanding that there is so much to learn, the space to begin that learning, and the belief that growing is possible.

I know Monica does so much for our Wisconsin school libraries; I am so thankful to you, Monica, for your incredible work. And I am so thankful to everyone here at the WEMTA conference and in our school libraries across Wisconsin. Please continue to have a great conference. Thank you.