[Newspoetry] Another Reason The Drug War Fails Us

[Mike Lehman]

 From the New York Post:


>                   OUR WORST SCHOOLS HAVE FEWEST
>                                 BOOKS
>                   By SUSAN EDELMAN
>
>                  Many schools where fourth-graders flunked a
>                  recent state exam have shabby - if any - libraries,
>                  The Post has found.
>
>                  One big reason: The Board of Education, despite
>                  its $10 billion budget, spends a state allotment of
>                  only $4 per student on school library books.
>
>                  That $4 is only one-fourth the cost of the average
>                  hardcover: $16.60.
>
>                  Overall, city schools spend twice as much on
>                  drug-abuse programs, $30.41 per kid, as they do
>                  on library books and librarians combined -
>                  $14.81 per kid.
>
>                  In announcing that 67 percent of the city's
>                  schoolkids failed to meet the reading and writing
>                  standards of the new fourth-grade English
>                  Language Arts exam, State Education
>                  Commissioner Richard Mills reminded parents
>                  that every child should be reading at least 25
>                  books a year.
>
>                  That's a struggle for youngsters in book-starved
>                  schools.
>
>                  "Kids need access to books," said Ray
>                  Domanico, education adviser for the Metro
>                  Industrial Areas Foundation, a group working in
>                  Harlem and other poor communities to beef up
>                  school libraries.
>
>                  "They need to be reading a lot. They need to
>                  develop a habit of reading. And many don't have
>                  books at home, so they really rely on the school
>                  library."
>