Ed Secretary Spelling Announces Funds for Hurricane-Ravaged Schools

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Laura B. Weiss -- School Library Journal, 2/2/2006

Margaret Spelling, the U.S. secretary of education, recently said that the hurricane-ravaged states of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas would receive an immediate infusion of funds to restart their school operations.

School libraries will also benefit from the funds, which can be used to restock library materials, says Emily Sheketoff, associate executive director of the American Library Association's (ALA) Washington office.

"We will be sending $100 million each to Louisiana and Mississippi, $50 million to Texas, and $3.75 million to Alabama as the first installment of the resources that are so desperately needed by the Gulf States," Spelling says.

The funds are part of the $750 million that Congress recently appropriated for restarting schools in hurricane-affected areas. For more information, visit www.ed.gov.