California Democratic Party Passes Resolution to Protect Public Libraries!
The California Democratic Party’s executive board passed a resolution calling on the State Legislature to enact laws to protect public libraries from being taken over by for-profit corporations on July 31. Privatizing public libraries has ended up costing taxpayers millions and threatens the programs and services libraries deliver to our communities.
AB 438 (Williams) helps protect public libraries and taxpayers by ensuring that the public has a voice and the right to important information about any proposal being considered before city governments can decide to hand over control of local libraries.
“We want to avoid another Santa Clarita situation in which the City Council turned over its libraries to Library Systems and Services Inc. (LSSI) in order to save $500,000 a year ,but ended up spending $12 million in order to do so,” said Angel Nicolas, LA County librarian. “AB 438 helps to ensure that another Santa Clarita disaster doesn’t happen by demanding full transparency and allowing for public input.”
The California Democratic Party is the latest to join the ever-growing bi-partisan coalition of supporters for AB 438 that includes librarians, home school families and local library support and fundraising groups. AB 438 will be voted on by the California State Senate within the next few weeks.
To learn more about AB 438 and to show your support by lending your name as a supporter, click here.