The following letter was written by my mom, Carol Braum, a high school/middle school librarian. Kansas HB2390, a bill to abolish Kan-ed, was introduced on Monday. Kan-ed is a vital and important statewide service for libraries and K-12/higher education. Here’s the advocacy alert from KLA. My letter to elected officials will be posted later this week. If you are a Kansan, I strongly urge you to contact your elected officials about this bill, asking for its defeat. Read the KLA legislative alert to find out what Kan-ed does for libraries. 53 impact stories are also available from Kan-ed, describing what this service does for schools, health institutions, colleges, and rural areas.
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Dear Representative Rhoades, Representative O’Neal, Representative Gonzalez, and Representative Fund:
At a time when school budgets have been under fire for several years, school libraries and teachers have come to depend on KanEd more and more to support educational and research needs. Limited budgets have resulted in fewer magazine subscriptions, fewer research materials, and even the loss of online subscriptions to research tools.  I have relied on KanEd more each year with these cuts. Now you want to take that away too?  Our students will not have good research tools available to them. It is already a struggle to be sure they are adequately prepared to handle college level research. Kansas students are falling farther and farther behind as a result of these types of cuts.
KanEd has been a huge equalizer in allowing small communities access to Internet and to a statewide network. It has provided tools to small schools, allowing their students some of the same opportunities that larger schools can sometimes better afford. The online tutoring service KanEd supports has allowed students additional help during after-school hours, which is especially valuable for students that sometimes lack that kind of help at home.
KanEd is a VERY valuable resource to schools as well as to communities.
Please reconsider the bill you are proposing. Do not take anything more away from education in this state.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Carol Braum
Media Specialist
Holton HS / Holton MS