A Dearth of California School Librarians

If you can read this, don’t thank a school librarian — they’re too hard to find.

Fewer than 25 percent of California public schools are staffed with a school librarian, according to SFGate. That makes about 900 school librarians across the state, according to Department of Education statistics — or the lowest ratio of librarians-to-students in the country.

With budgets sliced and diced to balance big statewide deficits in Sacramento, school librarians are often the first to go, according to the report. Schools will try to share librarians between three campuses, or ask parent volunteers to fill in to tell students where the books are kept.

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