State Lawmaker Agrees to Sponsor Oregon School Library Bill
This article originally appeared in SLJ's Extra Helping. Sign up now!
By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 9/8/2008 2:00:00 PM
It looks like Fund Our Future Oregon is making some headway. The founders of the campaign to save school libraries across the state recently obtained word that Representative Peter Buckley (D-Ashland) will sponsor a bill to support their efforts.
 |
|
Nancy Sullivan |
Sullivan says she and cofounder Suzie Kabeiseman hope to meet with Buckley in the coming weeks to help draft a bill. “We really want to be ready for legislative session, which starts in January,” says Sullivan.
The news came as a pleasant surprise to Sullivan and Kabeiseman, a mother and elementary school teacher in Oregon, because until now, their efforts hadn’t gleaned much success.
Launched on February 1, Fund Our Future Oregon—an offshoot of Fund Our Future Washington—got off to a rough start, and part of the reason is that both Sullivan and Kabeiseman have jobs—and they happen to be working for the school districts they’re complaining about, Sullivan says
The Spokane moms—Lisa Layera Brunkan, Denette Hill, and Susan McBurney—worked tirelessly for more than a year to gain state funding for media centers and secured a $4 million line item for school libraries in the 2008-2009 academic year. But they were three stay-at-home moms who could “go straight to the top” without any concern about repercussions relating to their jobs, says Sullivan, who is also vice president of the Portland Association of School Librarians and serves on the board of the Oregon Association of School Libraries.
“This is volunteer run, and I have four jobs at my school,” adds Sullivan ticking off a list of her responsibilities as librarian, aide, textbook clerk, and tech specialist.
Sullivan says she and Kabeiseman were disappointed in the “disparities between some school libraries” and wanted to do something about it. So when they heard about the success of Fund Our Future Washington, they reached out to the three moms for support.
Like Washington, Oregon requires a certified media specialist in its high schools to obtain accreditation. Yet two high schools in Portland—Roosevelt High School and Marshall High School—are run by aides.
“I don’t know how they’re getting away with this,” says Sullivan. “It’s a joke. Two-thirds of students don’t have access to a certified media specialist.”
Representatives Ben Canon (D-Portland), and Larry Galizio (D-Tigard) have also expressed support for legislation to fund school librarians at the state level.
