The Wait Continues
Staff -- School Library Journal, 4/1/2000
A measure to get the first federal funding in 20 years for school libraries suffered a setback recently when a Senate committee rejected a bid to add the bill to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Supporters of the legislation, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), now hope it will pass when it comes to the Senate floor. Reed's bill would provide $250 million for library materials and other needs. He offered it as an amendment to the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), a $12-billion program authorizing several of the nation's major educational programs. But the Senate committee that oversees the legislation rejected Reed's amendment on a party line vote of 10â?"8, with the Republican majority voting no. Observers say Reed's bill fell victim to partisan politics and philosophical differences between Republicans, who want to extend ESEA's block grant approach, and Democrats, who favor targeting funds to certain needs. "I think they reached an explicit or implicit agreement that they would resist everything except the most routine Democratic amendments, particularly anything that would create a directed program for states," Reed told SLJ. The American Library Association has urged librarians to contact their senators to support Reed's measure, S. 1262. For contact information, go to congress.nw.dc.us/ala.--A. G.
