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Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Some Arkansas libraries still waiting new state funding rules now a year overdue
Allie Gosselink (left), director of the Calhoun County Library, advocates for public libraries before the Arkansas State Library Board at its quarterly meeting on Friday, February 14, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) The Arkansas State Library Board on Friday will disburse public funds to libraries for the last time in the 2025 fiscal year, and likely the last time before all seven board members will be replaced. As local library directors wait for their regular shares of state funding, some continue to await a long-delayed avenue for rural libraries to be eligible for more state funding. An amendment to the State Library's fiscal year 2024 appropriation bill introduced by Sen. John Payton, R-Wilburn, required the Arkansas Department of Education to alter library funding eligibility standards to allow smaller libraries not supported with a local millage access to state aid. The original deadline for establishing those standards was July 1, 2024, the start of the current fiscal year. 'We want [libraries] to receive local support,' Payton told a Joint Budget subcommittee at the time. 'We don't want them dependent on the grants and aid that might come through the State Library system, but it's impossible for them to pass and maintain one mill if they're a city of less than 5,000.' Arkansas Constitutional Amendment 30 prohibits libraries in cities with fewer than 5,000 people from being supported by local property taxes. Payton said he presented the proposal to change the rules on behalf of his constituents in Ash Flat, which has a population of just over 1,100 and a library funded by the city government. Eligibility for state aid would allow the Ash Flat Library to apply for state and federal grants it currently cannot access, Terry Hill, chairman of the library's governing board, told the Advocate. Subsequent State Library appropriations, for fiscal 2025 and 2026, reiterated the need to broaden access to library funding, but the rule-making process stalled last year, meaning rural libraries still cannot access the funds, according to library directors and the education department. State Library Director Jennifer Chilcoat told the board in a Feb. 14, 2024, email that the rules had to be in place before the board met that August to start disbursing state funds for fiscal year 2025. If not, the State Library would be 'in violation of' either its standards for state aid to public libraries or the legal requirement to create the rules, Chilcoat said in the email. The State Library appropriation bills state that the new rules must 'allow a public library to adequately demonstrate a source of revenue in lieu of the requirement to maintain a one-mill county or city property tax,' which is currently a standard for libraries to receive state aid. Without formal rules, the current standard limits which libraries can receive state grants. A mill is equal to $1 dollar for every $1,000 in assessed value on real estate. Calhoun County is Arkansas' most rural county, and its library system would receive an $18,000 funding boost under broader state aid eligibility standards, director Allie Gosselink told the Advocate. The Hampton library would also be able to increase its hours of operation from 28 to 40 hours per week and would bolster its early literacy services and upgrade its technology, Gosselink said. She and John McGraw, regional director of the Faulkner-Van Buren Library System, were both on the advisory committee that drafted new rules required by the 2023 law. 'We talked about every piece of that and tried to decide what worked, what didn't work, what was detrimental, and we changed the rules based on what we thought would be fair,' Gosselink said. Assistant Attorney General Sarah DeBusk told the State Library Board in November that proposed rules must be approved by the education secretary and governor and a public comment period before final approval by the Arkansas Legislative Council. The Department of Education's legal division is responsible for ensuring the rules are in the proper format before they return to the state agency that drafted them. The State Library Board would be responsible for opening a 30-day public comment period on the rules after receiving the formal version from the education department, and Chilcoat urged the board in the February 2024 email to plan for a special meeting the following month. Education department attorneys were 'tentatively predicting that we should either hear back from or receive approval from' Sanders' office in the subsequent few weeks, Chilcoat wrote. 'There is a timeline that we are keenly aware of to get the changes in place before the start of the 2025 State Fiscal Year,' she said in her February 2024 email. 'For that reason, we cannot wait until the May board meeting to get these Rules in front of you and the public.' The State Library Board has not voted on the proposed rules but has a new deadline of this July 1 to act, according to emails obtained by the Advocate via the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. The still unofficial rules and possible actions the Library Board can take were the subject of late April emails between Chilcoat and ADE Chief of Staff Courtney Salas-Ford. Since the board doesn't have new rules to address Payton's 2023 appropriations amendment, Chilcoat wrote on April 25, 'we need to have a stopgap formula beginning in August in case the promulgation process is not complete at that time. 'If there aren't new State Aid Rules in place when the new board members begin their terms, these drafts will give them a template which they can use or dismiss, but it will give them a starting point from which to work if they so choose,' the email said. One of the last laws the General Assembly passed before adjourning this month was Act 903, which will dismiss the entire State Library Board and require Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to appoint seven new members in August. In an April 30 email, Chilcoat told Salas-Ford she has 'two versions of a one-time state aid formula for the current board to choose from and approve so that the new board doesn't have to deal with the first quarter payments at their first meeting. 'One formula simply removes the MLS (Master's of Library Science) credit from all recipients of it. The other is a simple across-the-board percentage decrease [in state aid to all libraries]. 'Both are included so that we can honor Senator Payton's amendment to include those libraries that don't or can't collect the millage previously required. Of course, the current board can also vote to pass the responsibility to the next board.' Gosselink and McGraw both told lawmakers in April that the inaction on the proposed rules was a reason the Legislature should not dissolve the State Library and its board and transfer their responsibilities and funds to the education department. A House committee rejected the proposed dissolution, one of several bills that generated hours of debate about library oversight and funding throughout the 2025 legislative session. The new rules for state aid to libraries are on Friday's Library Board agenda. Gosselink said she hoped Friday's board meeting would create 'a little bit of clarity' for her library's funding for the rest of the state's fiscal year. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill to abolish Arkansas State Library and its board advances despite librarians' opposition
Five Arkansans spoke against Senate Bill 536 before the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. From left: Misty Hawkins, regional director of the Arkansas River Valley Regional Library System; Allie Gosselink, director of the Calhoun County Library; Debbie Hall, grants manager for the Arkansas State Library; John McGraw,executive director of the Faulkner-Van Buren Regional Library; and Clare Graham, Mid-Arkansas Regional Library System director. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) After more than two hours of debate, an Arkansas Senate committee advanced a proposal on Tuesday to abolish the Arkansas State Library and its board, which disburses state funding to local public libraries. Senate Bill 536 would transfer the agency's and board's powers, authorities, funds, contracts and employees to the Arkansas Department of Education. The State Library is already under the department's umbrella but operates independently. The bill would delete all mentions of the State Library from existing state statute and make 'prohibit[ing] access to age-inappropriate materials to a person who is sixteen (16) years old or younger' a condition for public libraries to receive state funds from the education department. 'My entire library, all 30,000 books, would fit inside this room,' Calhoun County Library Director Allie Gosselink said, speaking against SB 536 before the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs in the Arkansas Capitol's Old Supreme Court room. 'I need a definition for 'access,' or I can't let anyone that's under 16… inside my door,' Gosselink continued. SB 536 defines 'age-inappropriate material' as 'books, media, or any other material accessible at a public library containing images or explicit and detailed descriptions' of sexual acts, sexual contact and human genitalia. The location and availability of books based on 'appropriateness' for minors was the thrust of Act 372 of 2023. The law would have given local elected officials the final say over whether to relocate challenged library materials some consider 'obscene' and made librarians legally liable for disseminating such materials. A federal judge temporarily and later permanently blocked portions of Act 372; Attorney General Tim Griffin appealed the ruling in January. New bill would dissolve Arkansas State Library and its board, set new library funding criteria Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, sponsored Act 372 and is the primary sponsor of SB 536. Protecting minors from 'age-inappropriate material' in libraries and detaching from the American Library Association were the two requests Sullivan said he gave the State Library Board last month as conditions of its survival. The board voted against two proposals with those stated goals from Republican ex-senator Jason Rapert, who has called for the board's abolition. Sullivan subsequently doubled down on his existing promise to dissolve the board. He introduced a bill in February to abolish both the State Library Board and the Arkansas Educational Television Commission, which oversees Arkansas PBS, but he said he reached an agreement with the latter in March that led him to decide not to dissolve the commission. On Tuesday, Sullivan told the State Agencies committee that his requests to the State Library Board should not have been difficult to fulfill and that SB 536 would ensure the state's 'oversight' of entities that receive public funds. 'When people say 'Book Ban Dan' is taking away their library or killing their library, they chose that path,' Sullivan said. SB 536 would require libraries to submit annual reports to the Department of Education that include 'an assurance of compliance with the applicable laws of the state, rules promulgated by the department, and the policies of the public library.' For example, Sullivan said, libraries should not espouse diversity, equity and inclusion policies or allow transgender people to use bathrooms that do not match their gender assigned at birth. Sullivan has sponsored or supported laws to these ends this year and in 2023. Four library directors, including Gosselink, and Arkansas State Library grants manager Debbie Hall spoke against SB 536. No members of the public spoke for the bill. If the education department determines a library no longer qualifies for state funding, the library would be allowed to appeal the decision as long as it can prove 'the determination was made in error' or 'the determination was correct but remedial actions have been taken by the public library to bring the public library into compliance,' according to SB 536. The appeal process would not be sufficient if the law goes into effect July 1 in accordance with its emergency clause, said Misty Hawkins, regional director of the Arkansas River Valley Regional Library System, which has seven branches in Franklin, Johnson, Logan and Yell counties. The library system would have to rewrite its interlocal agreements between the four counties to account for the new code and repealed code in SB 536, which is not possible to complete in only three months, Hawkins said. 'As a director, I am now doing more [to] ensure my libraries are in compliance in order to get the same amount of funding,' which is $188,000 from the state, Hawkins said. She also said SB 536 does not specify how librarians must determine whether a book is appropriate for a 16-year-old but not for a 15-year-old. All five people who spoke against the bill said libraries already organize books on shelves in an age-appropriate manner in accordance with existing standards, and State Library Board members have made similar statements. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX After rejecting the two proposals put forth by Sullivan and Rapert last month, the State Library Board passed a motion to create 'non-binding policies to protect children' while honoring First Amendment freedoms and libraries' material selection policies. Sullivan said this was not enough to deter him from dissolving the board, partly because the majority of members still opposed removing references to the American Library Association from board documents. On Tuesday, Sullivan repeated his criticism of a former ALA president for publicly calling herself a Marxist and the ALA's Library Bill of Rights for stating that access to libraries should not be restricted based on a person's age. The ALA presidency is 'a ceremonial job' that does not directly influence the policies of the nonprofit trade association that advocates for libraries and helps them secure grant funding, said John McGraw, executive director of the Faulkner-Van Buren Regional Library. Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, said the ALA's Library Bill of Rights rubs him the wrong way because it asserts 'you can't protect a 3-year-old' from inappropriate content. Gosselink called Clark's statement 'semantics.' 'Not a single person sitting behind me will tell you that you do not need to protect a 3-year-old from certain things that are in our libraries,' she said. 'That is the parents' job. We can't make a whole library acceptable for a 3-year-old.' Local libraries are already governed by their local boards that know their communities best. This bill takes that away, replacing it with centralized oversight that doesn't understand the unique needs of each town and city. – Clare Graham, Mid-Arkansas Regional Library System director McGraw said, not for the first time, that his library system doesn't have a mechanism to lock away books that might be appropriate for adults but inappropriate for small children. A bill advanced later on Tuesday that would require Arkansas public school libraries serving K-5 students to segregate 'non-age-appropriate sexual content' in 'a locked compartment within a designated area.' House Bill 1646 passed the House with 75 votes for it and 14 against it, mostly along party lines, and will next go to the Senate Education Committee. SB 536 includes a limited exception to the proposed restrictions on 'age-inappropriate materials.' Sex education materials would be accessible to minors between 12 and 15 years old, and those under 12 would not be able to access such materials if their parents or guardians have forbidden their access in writing. Six of the eight Senate State Agencies committee members, including Sullivan, voted to pass SB 536. Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, voted against it. The committee's sole Democrat, Sen. Clarke Tucker of Little Rock, was absent during the vote. SB 536 would also require libraries to maintain a specific minimum hours of operation depending on the populations of the areas they serve. For example, a library in a community of less than 10,000 people would have to be open 1,480 hours per year in order to receive state funding, and a library that serves 10,000 to 19,000 people would have to be open 1,730 hours per year. The library directors who spoke against the bill said this would disproportionately threaten rural libraries' funding. McGraw called the provision an 'unfunded mandate' and said it would apply unevenly to the branches he supervises in Conway and in rural areas. CONTACT US Gosselink said the payroll and utility costs to meet the hours requirement at the Calhoun County Library's main branch in Hampton would cost more than the state funding she currently receives, which is $7,100 per year. 'It's my entire discretionary budget for programming, for books, for computers, for anything I might do that's above and beyond opening the doors and turning on the lights,' she said. Sullivan said county governments and taxpayers would be required to put in extra effort to make up for any library funding that might be lost, but he also said he doubted that libraries are at risk of losing funding in the first place. McGraw challenged this statement and mentioned that the entire staff of the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services was put on administrative leave for 90 days Monday. Earlier in March, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to gut the federal agency that provides grant funding to libraries nationwide. The Arkansas State Library distributes IMLS funds to Arkansas libraries. These funds support summer reading programs, interlibrary loan programs, resources for blind and print-disabled library patrons and state document depositories, Arkansas Library Association president and Garland County Library director Adam Webb told the Advocate. McGraw called SB 536 'an unnecessary introduction of chaos' into the already uncertain landscape of library funding, and he said the bill does not include any metrics for measuring improvements within libraries that meet all of the bill's state funding requirements. The fourth library director to speak against the bill was Clare Graham, who oversees the five-county Mid-Arkansas Regional Library System. 'This bill imposes a one-size-fits-all approach that stifles creativity and flexibility,' Graham said. 'Local libraries are already governed by their local boards that know their communities best. This bill takes that away, replacing it with centralized oversight that doesn't understand the unique needs of each town and city.' The full Senate will consider SB 536 Wednesday. The bill's emergency clause requires two-thirds of the chamber's support, or 24 votes. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Arkansas State Library Board refuses to reject American Library Association, withhold funds
Allie Gosselink (left), director of the Calhoun County Library, advocates for public libraries before the Arkansas State Library Board at its quarterly meeting on Friday, February 14, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) The Arkansas State Library Board rejected member Jason Rapert's attempt Friday to remove references to the American Library Association from its policies and to ensure the funds it distributes do not support ALA membership or programming. Rapert, a former Republican state senator from Conway, spent several minutes of Friday's three-hour board meeting denouncing ALA as 'toxic' and reiterating his stance that minors should not have access to 'sexually explicit' content in libraries. ALA is a nonprofit trade organization that advocates for public libraries and helps them secure grant funding. Rapert also verbally sparred with three library directors during the meeting's public comment period, asking them whether they supported 'age-appropriate restrictions' on children's access to certain materials. The library directors said children's access to books is already restricted by parental supervision and the separation of books into age-appropriate sections. 'Any sexually explicit information in those books is not my decision to control one way or another,' said Allie Gosselink, director of the Calhoun County Library. '[It is] my patrons that are requesting that I purchase these materials. It is not my business to tell them what they can and cannot read.' The seven-member board again rejected a motion from Rapert to withhold state funds from libraries where 'sexually explicit' content is accessible by children. Shari Bales of Hot Springs voted for the motion, while three members voted against it and two were absent, including the board's newest member, Sydney McKenzie. Rapert has made the same motion at four of the five State Library Board meetings since he became a member; many of his former Senate colleagues confirmed his appointment by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in December 2023. At all five meetings, beginning a year ago, Rapert has also moved to withhold funds from libraries actively suing the state. The motion failed Friday for lack of a second. Rapert expressed support for two bills pertaining to libraries that the Legislature is currently considering. The Senate is expected to vote Monday on Senate Bill 184, which would abolish the State Library Board and transfer its powers and authorities to the Arkansas Department of Education. SB 184 passed a Senate committee Thursday, and another committee is expected to hear Senate Bill 181 on Tuesday. SB 181 would loosen the current requirement that library directors hold a master's degree 'from an accredited American Library Association program.' It also would allow someone with 'work experience in the field of library operations' but without a master's degree to run a library with approval from its local governing board. Arkansas committee advances bill to abolish state library and PBS oversight boards Rapert's failed motion would have removed the American Library Association from the State Library's standards for state aid to public libraries, which are partly based on one of the statutes SB 181 seeks to amend. It also would have removed participation in an ALA-accredited degree program from the State Library's qualification requirements for scholarships aimed at librarians in training. State Library Director Jennifer Chilcoat said it is 'difficult to find a quality master's of library science program' that is not ALA-accredited. Board member Lupe Peña de Martinez of Mabelvale said the apparent lack of a 'high-caliber' body besides ALA to accredit these programs led her to oppose Rapert's motion. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, is sponsoring SB 181 and SB 184. He and Rapert have both criticized ALA for its Library Bill of Rights, which states that access to libraries should not be restricted based on a person's age. Far-right conservatives nationwide have claimed this statement is proof that the ALA believes in forcing content about sexual activity and LGBTQ+ topics onto children. Rapert said Friday that his opposition to ALA and sexually explicit content did not mean he wanted to 'ban books' or prevent libraries from functioning as they normally do. To underscore his point about protecting children, he played the board and audience a video of a young adult claiming that school library books with LGBTQ+ themes led her to falsely believe she was a transgender boy. She said she has now 'detransitioned' and identifies with her gender assigned at birth. Board Chairwoman Deborah Knox of Mountain Home pointed out that the State Library has no jurisdiction over the books in school libraries. Two adults who 'detransitioned' testified for the state in a 2022 federal trial, defending Arkansas' first-of-its-kind ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. A federal judge struck down the ban in 2023 and deemed the two witnesses' testimony 'irrelevant.' Librarians from throughout the state, including Gosselink, gathered outside the State Library headquarters on Capitol Avenue before Friday's board meeting, many holding Valentine-themed signs encouraging people to 'love your library.' Four of the five Arkansans who spoke during the public comment period were library directors. The fifth, Leta Caplinger, said she and other Crawford County residents showed their love for their library by pushing back against calls for the removal of LGBTQ+ books in the county's five library branches in 2022. The library system eventually segregated these books into 'social sections' and was on the losing end of two lawsuits over the matter, including one in which Caplinger is among 18 plaintiffs. In December, a federal judge permanently blocked two sections of Act 372 of 2023, which Sullivan sponsored. The law would have altered libraries' material reconsideration processes and created criminal liability for librarians who distribute content considered 'obscene' or 'harmful to minors.' Crawford County will not be involved in the state's appeal of the First Amendment-based injunction. Federal judge declares sections of Arkansas' library obscenity law unconstitutional Caplinger denounced Sullivan's two bills and Rapert's attempt to remove ALA from State Library policy, saying they were 'directly geared toward attacking the professionalism' of librarians. The other three speakers — Misty Hawkins, Adam Webb and Judy Calhoun — agreed that librarians' professional credibility and competence have been under attack for the past few years. Hawkins is the director of the Arkansas River Valley Regional Library System, and she spoke against SB 184 before the Senate committee Thursday. Calhoun recently retired as director of the Southeast Arkansas Regional Library System, and she encouraged the State Library Board to 'allow children to be parented and urge parents to be parents [and] trust librarians to do their jobs.' Webb is the director of the Garland County Library and the president of the Arkansas Library Association, ALA's state chapter. He is also a plaintiff in the Act 372 lawsuit. The State Library Board is a form of 'representative democracy' with its seven members required to represent different areas of the state, Webb said, expressing opposition to the possible abolition of the board. 'I encourage this board to fight for themselves and speak with legislators and make sure we still have representation,' he said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
