ALA: Support School Libraries in ESEA Reauthorization
RSSBy Debra Lau Whelan
Now's your chance to stand up for school libraries and be heard. The U.S. Senate Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) this week began marking up a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), our nation's most important K-12 education law. And if school libraries aren't included, they'll lose out on crucial federal dollars for the next decade. "Our country's students perform better in schools with solid school library programs," says Lynne Bradley, ALA's director of the Office of Government Relations. "If school libraries are not in the legislation, if we don't succeed this week, we face a daunting hurdle to get federal school library programs acknowledged for many years. More and more students will not be served; a whole generation of low-income kids will go through school with inadequate or even no school library resources." Why is this week so crucial? On October 19, the HELP committee began marking up a bill to reauthorize ESEA, and they're expected to finish their work by the end of this week. The bill will then go to the Senate floor for a vote on an undetermined date. Earlier this month, key members of the American Association of School Libraries headed to Washington, DC, to advocate for the inclusion of the Strengthening Kids' Interest in Learning and Libraries (SKILLs) Act in the upcoming renewal of ESEA. It ensures that every school is served by a state-certified media specialist and that library programs have access to the resources students need to become lifelong learners. Unfortunately, the SKILLs Act only has five cosponsors, which, isn't enough for the proposal "slide" through the Senate. "At this point, our advocacy alerts have started referring to a school library 'amendment' rather than the SKILLS Act," says Bradley. "We think the overall ESEA bill will pass, although we do not know if the school library provision will be supported." Why is action needed now rather than later? Due to the difficulties in getting ESEA reauthorized in previous Congresses, the agreement between the House and the Senate is for the Senate to pass ESEA first, followed by the House. But the House has passed four smaller education bills, none of which have addressed school libraries. To make matters worse, the current House leadership has said that it won't work on ESEA until 2013—the next Congress, after the 2012 presidential and congressional elections. That's why librarians need to focus on what's taking place in the Senate this week. "We need school library language to stay in ESEA for the next Congress," explains Bradley. "With the assumption that the 113th Congress will start with the Senate bill from this 112th Congress, it is extremely important that the school library provision gets into ESEA now." In short, if the House votes on ESEA during this Congress, "We must be in the Senate bill because there is no unique House bill," Bradley adds. "If school libraries are not included in this pending Senate bill, it is extremely unlikely that we would be able to persuade the same congressional players in the next Congress to add in a school library program." The goal is to succeed in the short term by getting school library programs into the Senate's ESEA now. "By doing so, we position school libraries to be included when an ESEA bill is finally reauthorized, even if that is in the next Congress," Bradley says. This article originally appeared in the newsletter Extra Helping. Go here to subscribe.
October 20, 2011
That's why the American Library Association (ALA) is encouraging its members and supporters to get in touch with Senators from their state at 202-224-3121—especially those on the HELP Committee—and urge them to support school libraries in ESEA.
