Learning Curve: Texas schools still value librarians — but their numbers are starting to fall

In Texas, more school librarians are being hired, but the majority of districts aren’t yet doing away with them.

According to a Houston Landing review of school staff statistics, the number of school librarians in the state’s public schools has decreased by 5% over the last ten years due to tighter budgets and increased monitoring of the books that students can access.

According to the data, librarians are still valued in the majority of Texas public schools, despite some conservatives’ increased attention to their function and the books they oversee.

However, this school year, Texas librarians and several education advocates are anticipating even more cuts. About 50 of the 90 librarian positions at Cy-Fair ISD, the second-largest district in the area, were cut. The 14th-largest district in the area, Spring Branch ISD, which is adjacent, cut all 35 of its librarian positions.

A tiny slide:The number of full-time equivalents, or FTEs, employed as librarians in Texas public schools decreased from approximately 4,650 FTEs in 2014–15 to 4,410 FTEs in 2023–24. (One FTE is a full-time librarian with no other responsibilities, whereas 0.5 FTEs are employees who devote half of their time to librarian activities.)

Enrollment in Texas public schools has grown by 6% over the same period.

Staffing levels for librarians remained stable in the latter part of the 2010s before somewhat declining due to the pandemic and the suspension of regular increases in public school financing.

The local look: In 2023–2024, there was a broad range in the number of librarians in the Houston region.

With at least one FTE per 1,000 students, Pasadena, Clear Creek, and Spring Branch ISDs and Lamar CISDs reported the greatest librarian-to-student ratios among the 15 largest districts in the area. (Spring Branch’s reductions were not implemented until the 2024–2025 academic year.)

Of the 15 districts, Houston ISD had by far the lowest librarian-to-student ratio. The district eliminated about 45 librarian FTEs in 2023-24 under first-year Superintendent Mike Miles, whoargued the salaries paid to librarianscould be better spent on boosting teacher pay.

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Look up your district:In 2023–2024, over half of Texas public school districts reported hiring librarians. To see the number of librarian FTEs and the librarian-to-student ratio for those districts, search the database below. (For context, the average librarian-to-teacher ratio is 0.91 FTEs per 1,000 students.)

The other half of districts don t employ librarians, didn t report librarian FTEs, or classified their library staff under different employee categories. Aldine ISD, for example, doesn t report any librarian FTEs, though district payroll records show about 75 information literacy specialists working at campuses across the district.

What it means:Researchers have generally found school libraries and librarians have amodest but consistently positive impacton student achievement, most often measured through standardized test scores.

At the same time, Texas hasn t significantly increased funding for public schools since 2019. As costs have continued to rise during a high-inflation period, some districts have slashed librarian positions to help balance budgets and pay for raises for other employees.

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