AASL Endorses Resolution on '65 Percent Solution'
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Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 01/27/2006
The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) is standing up to the '65 percent solution,' a new educational funding formula that could cut money for school libraries.
Media specialists have expressed mounting concern over the '65 percent solution,' a move promoted by the DC-based group, First Class Education, that would require school districts to devote 65 percent or more of their operating budgets to in-class instruction. Unfortunately, school librarians fall outside the definition of "classroom instruction" and would be forced to compete with the likes of guidance counselors, school bus drivers, and cafeteria workers for the remaining 35 percent of the education funding pie.
AASL board members attending the American Library Association's (ALA) midwinter meeting in San Antonio endorsed a resolution on January 22 calling on the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to issue a new definition of media specialists that classifies them as in-classroom instructors.
First Class Education uses the current NCES definition to determine what constitutes classroom instruction. AASL wants NCES to recognize media specialists' teaching role and include their salaries and library resources as part of the classroom instruction definition.
The resolution also asks ALA council to send letters to governors asking them to publicly reject any policy that would "dismantle school libraries and reduce or eliminate the staffing of those libraries by state-certified school librarians."
