Not only am I a parent of two children in the public school system, I am also a long-time volunteer and former employee at Coleman Elementary School. I worked in the library as an assistant for three years. It is from this perspective that I make the following comments. To enable them to use these resources, librarians teach children alphabetical order. Children may have learned about decimals from their classroom teachers, but librarians reinforce basic math skills every day when they teach children how locate books on the library shelves using the Dewey Decimal System.
Librarians teach and reinforce basic computer skills, from keyboarding to Internet research.
With a little research on your part, you will find that most, if not all, school librarians hold teaching certificates as well as advanced degrees. At Coleman, all staff members teachers, administrators, custodians, secretaries, aides as well as parent volunteers, serve as role models and are part of a teaching team, an instructional team. Social skills, manners and respect are taught right along with science, math and reading. I could go on, but I believe I made my point. Perhaps the budget is not as misleading as you thought.