SLJ budget and funding survey findings

 more than half of school libraries in the United States—57 percent—report operating with “unmet needs,” according to School Library Journal’s 2026 Budget and Spending Survey. The survey, completed by 820 school libraries, examines current year (2025–26), prior year (2024–25), and projected library media center (LMC) budgets, revealing a largely flat funding environment across school types.

Within the data, the survey reveals how multiple factors, including burdensome approval and purchasing processes, rising collection expenses, and a growing need for alternative funding sources, exacerbate the impact of flat budgets in a period of economic uncertainty. This data is not only notable, but should help drive advocacy for school funding going forward.

Topics include demographics, district and state challenges, diversity funding, book fairs, staffing, and partnerships. 

Witteveen, A. (2026). 2026 budgets funding survey: School libraries face unmet needs. School Library Journal. https://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/story/2026-Budgets-Funding-Survey-School-Librarians-face-Unmet-Needs

Teacher professional development studies

A shift to greater school-level control of teacher professional development may be responsible for "perceptual discrepancies" over who is primarily responsible for organizing teachers’ learning activities, according to a survey of 1400 teachers, principals, and district superintendents. Principals and teachers in larger schools tended to have the greatest sense of school-level influence over professional development; however, in low-income schools, district administrators were perceived to have more authority. Districts were seen as the main source of financial support for teacher professional development, but the findings "also suggest a fair amount of discretionary authority at the school level to select and purchase materials and services specific to their needs."
PBS Teacher Line/Hezel Associates.(2007). The PBS TeacherLine National Survey of Teacher Professional Development. Syracuse, NY: Hezel Associates.
http://www.hezel.com/pbstlsurvey.html

A good research roundup on this topic is available at: http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2007/10/25/01report-1.h01.html?tmp=612090635