“The state of this library was good for the 20th century, but we are in the 21st century. If you have a 20th-century education in the 21st century, you are unemployed.”
   The library, which is bare when it comes to computers and has visibly worn furniture, will receive a technological upgrade as part of a “face lift,” as School Construction Authority officials described it. New books, a cataloging system and Internet readiness will be made available to the students at the complex, which includes Excelsior Preparatory and George Washington Carver High School for the Sciences.
   Although his audience could not directly help him in his pursuit of re-election in District 31 this fall, they will at least join him for a ribbon-cutting ceremony in September. SCA officials said the library renovation should be complete in time for the 2009-2010 school year.
   The SCA had originally asked for $500,000 for the project, but Sanders decided to add an extra $250,000 out of his budget to allow for more upgrades. Without the extra funds, the interior elements could have been completed, SCA officials said, but much of the same furnishings and equipment would have remained.
   Work on the library will begin in late June after Regents examinations and will continue through the summer months.
   “This is a political year,” Community Board 13 District Manager Lawrence McClean said to the students, backing Sanders’ nonpolitical assertion. “Politicians take their money and see where the votes were. This is a school. You’re not voting here.”
   The knowledge garnered in the library can be the foundation for improving what was once a dire situation at the high school. In 2006, 26 percent of Springfield Gardens High School students scored above an average of 65 percent in their classes, opposed to more than 78 percent of students at other schools in New York state. The school was made into a complex of four schools after graduation in June 2007.
   Springfield Gardens High School “was a horrible mess,” parent coordinator Sandra Dorsett said, adding that she and others lobbied Sanders for library upgrade funding last year. When the final number came in, Dorsett was thrilled.
   “All I could see were the dollar bills,” she joked. “Ching-ching.”
   Then, she took a more serious tone.
   “We need to let people know in the community that this place is a place of hope,” Dorsett said of the school complex.
   Interest in the library has been growing among students. Last April, the school’s librarian reported around 100 books were checked out. This April, more than 600 titles were taken out. If the 9,000-book collection doubles as anticipated, it could help the school see those figures grow even more.
   Sanders spent several minutes lecturing students on the importance of reading.Recalling a conversation from his years in collegiate politics, he linked what he called his youthful ignorance to the disinterest some students have toward reading.
   “You teach [students] how to read,” Sanders once told his professor, “I teach them how to read between the lines.”
   “Well,” the professor retorted, “you have to be able to read first.”
   As an act of encouragement, Sanders bluntly warned the Springfield Gardens students that only a few of them will be as successful as they hope to be.
   “I hate to say it,” Sanders said, “but only one out of five of you are going to make it. Make it your business to be that one. Then be bold enough to come back and grab another and bring them with you.”
   His advice: “Read your way to freedom.”