When Governor Blagojevich Was a School Library’s Best Friend

Ten years ago, for a moment, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, then a U.S. representative in Congress, was the darling of school libraries in Chicago. I can remember interviewing Ann Weeks, then director of the Chicago Public Schools Department of Libraries and Information Services, after he'd made the grand gesture of donating his share of the year's congressional pay raise ($2,140.09, to be exact) to a CPS book fundraiser with a $20 million goal. We were both impressed by the gesture; after all, here was a congressman coming out in support of books and reading and school libraries. We could see that this was a man on the way up, and it was pretty obvious that we needed friends like him in high places. Fast forward ten years. It seems the governor has turned the tables. Time for the money to flow in the opposite direction, he has apparently decided. And he thinks a good start, federal investigators are alleging, would be to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder. I heard from Ann Weeks this morning. She is now a professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland and has the same recollection I do. "I've always thought of Blagojevich as a strong library supporter," she said. Unfortunately, she and I both, along with everyone else with even an iota of insight into how Illinois politics seem to work, would register little surprise if the corruption allegations being leveled by the U.S. Attorney's office turned true. Although I never had an opportunity to interview Blagojevich, his grand gesture stuck in my craw, and I will say that I voted for the man, twice. I rationalize that some of it had to do with my memory of his grand gesture for school library books. How could anyone who came out for libraries turn out to be such a foolish and arrogant man? The way I feel about him now is that Illinois citizens should form a mob, go down to his office, and pull him out of his chair. But it's probably fairer to stop presuming he's guilty and let the impeachment process kick in. In any case, we have to move on from the Blagojevich mess to the promise implicit in President-elect Barack Obama's selection of the Harvard-educated chief executive of Chicago Public Schools as his secretary of education. In Chicago, Arne Duncan has a reputation as a reformer who has confronted teachers unions and held schools accountable for performance. Duncan has been head of Chicago Public Schools, the nation's third largest school district, since 2001, and current education secretary, Margaret Spellings, has called him a "visionary" school leader. Duncan has already said the first item on his to-tackle list is No Child Left Behind. Meanwhile, I received an e-mail message yesterday from Donnella Mitchell, an assistant cataloger for Tacoma Public Schools in Washington, pointing out the "America's Best High Schools" article published by U.S. News and World Report, which touts their three point analysis for determining the 100 best U.S. high schools.  "As a school librarian," she said, "I wondered.  There is another reason that these high schools could present such high student achievement: a well-stocked, well-staffed, full-time school library.  There was no mention of libraries in the articles that I read.  I think that research into what kind of library programs these high schools have could result in a very, very interesting article in American Libraries and give us more ammunition for protecting school library programs all over the country." Julie Walker, executive director of ALA's American Association of School Librarians, agrees, noting that AASL has always preached that instruction in information literacy must be embedded in the curriculum content . She points out that a related article says, "What's new today is the degree to which economic competitiveness and educational equity mean these skills can no longer be the province of the few. This distinction is not a mere debating point. It has important implications for how schools approach teaching, curriculum, and content."  Although AASL has no immediate plans to cross check the programs, says Walker, "I always think the same thing when a see a 'notable' school listed: It would be an interesting study—budget, staffing, etc.  On the other hand, the ever present challenge would be establishing a causal link."