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The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance
The Activist's Alert
The NCBLA wants to make sure you are aware of ongoing challenges to literacy, libraries, literature, education, reading rights and the arts, especially as they relate to our nation's young people. We will do our best to keep you up-to-date, and we request that you please make us aware of any situation across our nation that deserves the attention of all of us as citizens. As an individual citizen in a democracy you have a great deal of power, if you take actions that reflect your beliefs and priorities. As Robert F. Kennedy stated:
"Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills - against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the Earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32-year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. ‘Give me a place to stand,’ said Archimedes, ‘and I will move the world.’ These men moved the world, and so can we all."
Urgent Items:
ACTIVIST ALERT!
Vote coming up on this legislation MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24th
For everyone-- Parents, Teachers, Librarians, Community Leaders, Literacy and Library Activists--who cares about young people, literacy, and libraries!
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
We need your help to ensure the inclusion of the Strengthening Kids’ Interest in Learning and Libraries (SKILLs) Act in the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). This is the single most important piece of legislation concerning school libraries that will come before Congress this year. Reauthorization of this bill is critical to the future of school libraries.
URGENT ACTION NEEDED!
This legislation is critical to the future of school library media specialists and the bill will be marked up by the week of September 24. Please contact your Representative immediately and ask him/her to co-sponsor the SKILLs Act.
When contacting your Representative prepare yourself to state why this issue is of critical importance:
The SKILLs Act
• Requires school districts, to the extent feasible, to ensure that every school within the district employs at least one highly qualified school library media specialist in each school library;
• Defines highly qualified school library media specialists as those who have a bachelor’s degree and have obtained full state certification as a school library media specialist or passed the state teacher licensing examination, with state certification in library media in such state;
• Establishes as a state goal that there be at least one highly qualified school library media specialist in every public school no later than the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year;
• Broadens the focus of training, professional development, and recruitment activities to include school library media specialists;
• Ensures that funds will serve elementary, middle, and high school students;
• Requires books and materials to be appropriate for and engage the interest of students in all grade levels and students with special learning needs, including English language learners.
Talking Points
• Multiple studies have affirmed that there is a clear link between school library media programs that are staffed by a school library media specialist and student academic achievement. Across the United States, research has shown that students in schools with good school libraries learn more, get better grades, and score higher on standardized test scores than their peers in schools without libraries.
• Academic Librarians: School libraries are KEY to ensuring college readiness.
• Public Librarians: School library media specialists give students the skills they need to utilize your library to its fullest extent.
• Long regarded as the cornerstone of the school community, school libraries are no longer just for books. Instead, they have become sophisticated 21st century learning environments offering a full range of print and electronic resources that provide equal learning opportunities to all students, regardless of the socio-economic or education levels of the community – but only when they are staffed by school library media specialists trained to collaborate with teachers and engage students meaningfully with information that matters to them both in the classroom and in the real world.
• Only about 60 percent of our school libraries have a full-time, state-certified school library media specialist on staff.
• With limited funding and an increased focus on school performance, administrators are trying to stretch dollars and cut funds across various programs to ensure that maximum resources are dedicated to improving student academic achievement.
• Because NCLB does not highlight the direct correlation between school library media specialists and increased student academic achievement, library resource budgets are increasingly being used to mitigate the effects of budgetary shortfalls.
On September 24, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor will be considering reauthorization of the NCLB. In order for the SKILLs Act to be included in NCLB – that is, to place a highly qualified school library media specialist in every school – each member of the House must co-sponsor the SKILLS Act.
There is little more than two weeks to accomplish this goal and the name of your Representative must appear on this bill. If your Representative’s name does not appear as a co-sponsor, please call his/her office immediately and request that he/she support the SKILLs Act. If your Representative’s name DOES appear on this bill, contact his/her office and thank him/her for the continued support of school libraries and school library media specialists.
Sponsors:
Raul Grijalva (AZ-7)
Vernon Ehlers (MI-3)
Co-Sponsors:
Bart Gordon (TN-6)
Tim Holden (PA-17)
Steve Cohen (TN-9)
James McGovern (MA-3)
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:
1. Fax or call your State Representative to tell him or her to support the SKILLs act.
2. To find out the name, fax, and email address of your congressional representatives, go to: http://www.capwiz.com/ala/directory/congdir.tt
3. Be sure to write or speak respectfully, be direct, state your support of the SKILLs act and the reasons why you support its enactment.
For more information go to:
http://www.capwiz.com/ala/issues/alert/?alertid=10223941
http://www.capwiz.com/ala/issues/alert/?alertid=10086066
Activist Alert:
Only 35 percent of 12th graders are proficient in reading.
In February 27,The New York Times wrote an editorial related to the latest test results published by the National Assessment of Educational Progress-commonly referred to as the national report card. It is interesting that every major newspaper in the country published these results in the front pages of the paper, but few national news broadcasts covered the story. The findings, as noted in NCBLA blog posts, are dismal. Twelfth graders are not only performing worse in reading than twelfth graders did in 1992, but reading performance has been distressingly flat since 2002. For the full story, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/opinion/27tue3.html?pagewanted=print
This information provides an opportunity for all of us who care about kids, reading, education, books, and libraries- an opportunity to say to those who are in a position of power and influence in the media and the government, “We care! Do something!”
Right now our nation is perched at the precipice of change. Legislators and leaders in both parties are worried about the next election; very few can assume votes. In other words, power has shifted to the voter, the individual citizen- us!
If you care about young people, if you care about education, literacy, writing, literature, libraries, and the arts, if you care about the direction we are headed nationally, now is the time to contact the media, write to your legislators and tell them what you think, how you feel. Do you think educational issues should be a top priority on our national agenda along with health care and the environment? H0w do you feel about the Leave No Child Behind Act? Should our nation’s libraries get increased funding on a state, national and local level?
Isn’t it time that we stop focusing on one age of child development – like preschool education, high school illiteracy, etc., and take a holistic approach to educational reform? As the parent of three kids, now grown to young adulthood, I would never state that one stage of their development was of any more importance than another. All parents have to be concerned and caring through every age of their child's development, constantly vigilant. Physicians and healthy care providers do not treat any one age as more important in either preventative measures or ongoing treatments.
We have learned from studying our global environment that what happens in any one place on the planet influences the rest of the ecosystem and that is true of education, too. We can no longer focus only on reforming preschool education as we did a few years back, or middle grade education- it is time we take a much broader look, a lifelong look at educational reform in this country and ask some huge questions.
In an age when the average person will not only have 3-5 job changes, but 3-5 career changes, isn’t it time that we expand educational avenues rethinking arbitrary distinctions of age and grade levels and address lifelong education in a serious and committed manner? Shouldn't we have an educational system that meets the needs of all citizens from birth to old age? Shouldn't libraries be an equal partner in our educational system? Public libraries are the only place that anyone in this country can education him or herself throughout life; libraries are also the hub of every community in our nation.
Business and corporate America constantly complain about our nation's schools, but no one wants to spend the money it will take to create a first class educational system. Many people in this nation believe that putting major funding into education is not the answer, yet would any major corporation say that an influx of new capital into their business is a bad thing? We live in the most capitalist society on the planet; in our culture money talks, money reveals priorities. Any assessment of our nation’s priority yardstick reveals that education and kids are not a high priority- not even close. The amount of the federal dollar that goes into education is less than a penny. We say kids and education are important, but when it comes time to putting our money where our mouths are, our lips are sealed shut.
Charter schools and vouchers are inadequate band-aids on a system in which every major blood vessel and organ is hemorrhaging. We need to make a response to this national emergency on a grand scale, to question and rethink, and build our educational structure from the ground up.
Sometimes a barn can be rebuilt, but sometimes the roof has too many holes, the framing is too worm-eaten, the foundation is crumbling, and you just have to take it down and build anew. And when you have a barn raising you bring in the whole community. And we need to do that, too. We need to bring in teachers, administrators, and academics, but we also need to bring in parents, and grandparents, sociologists and health specialists, artists and creative thinkers, business people, union people-representatives from all walks of life because schools and libraries touch each and everyone of us, often every day. In America, schools and libraries are part of every person's past, and they are the real institutions that will determine all of our futures.
Please take the time to write to the media and your local, state, and national government legislators and officials. Write a personal note on a piece of paper- for that piece of paper will have far more impact than an email or phone call. And yes, if there is pending legislation or time is a problem, email and phone calls are best. But right now, when you have some time and a little leeway- writing a short, clear, concise letter can make you a powerful agent of change. Write and tell these people in power what you think and how you feel, and tell them to act. Tell them you will withhold your vote, your dollar, and in the case of the media, your viewer or readership if they do not cover the issues you care about.
And throw you cynicism out the window. You are a free citizen in a democracy; you have extraordinary power, especially if you work with others and raise your voices together. Change is not the exception; it is the norm. And things can change for good. In this country child labor is practically nonexistent. Civil rights for all citizens are not only a legal reality; every day civil rights are more and more a social reality. There is a huge difference in the limited opportunities that our mothers had compared to the wide opportunities that our daughters have now. There may be people who are hungry in America, but no one is starving to death. Change is inevitable, and in America each of us can become a powerful agent of change. Each of us can also choose to sit back, watch, and complain. And instead of shaping that inevitable change in a positive direction for ourselves and our children your choice of complacency will allow others-- others who may not have all of our interests at heart--to take over and enact change that promotes their self-interest. We will then suffer the deadly repercussions of our inaction, as will our children.
Write that letter now, today!
If you need help finding contact information for your local, state, and national legislators go to the activist basic pages on the NCBLA website at:
http://www.thencbla.org/BPOSpages/activistbasics.html
Write letters and email your local newspapers and television stations and bombard national media outlets. And if you live outside of New York and write to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, or any media outlet that has more of a national profile, your chances of being heard and getting published go up if you live outside of New York.
Thank You!
HURRICANE KATRINA BOOK RELIEF PROGRAMS
A number of organizations in the children’s book and literacy community are involved in book and library relief efforts for children, families, and communities affected by Hurricane Katrina. If you would like to help, please visit the websites of the following trustworthy and highly effective organizations. Your contribution will be most appreciated:
American Library Association – www.ala.org/ala/alonline/ hurricanekatrinanews/katrinanews.htm
Children’s Book Council – www.cbcbooks.org/news/relief_efforts.html
First Book – www.bookrelief.org/
Reading Is Fundamental- www.rif.org/donate/Hurricane_Relief.mspx
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators – http://www.scbwi.org/katrina.htm
PBS AND NPR FEDERAL FUNDING IN DANGER!
The Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio are active promoters of young people's literacy, education, books, and libraries. PBS programs like Sesame Street, Between the Lions, Clifford, Anne of Green Gables, Arthur, Reading Rainbow, and many more, have helped teach kids to read and used the power of television to connect kids to books. What's more, many adult programs, like Masterpiece Theater and American Masters promote literature. NPR regularly features segments and programming that promote kid's reading and books.
Contact your Congressional representatives and the President today and let them know how you feel about federal support for PBS and NPR.
For more information on PBS go to: www.pbs.org/hplink/redir/takeaction/
For more information on NPR go to: www.npr.org/about/funding.html
THE PATRIOT ACT
From Library Journal:
"The House of Representatives on June 15 (2005) voted 238-187 to scale back the USA Patriot Act. They passed Rep. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) amendment to the House Science-State-Justice Subcommittee appropriations bill to bar the Department of Justice from using any of its appropriated money to search library and bookstore records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. The passage comes one year after a similar amendment from Sanders was initially passed, then, in an unusual extended voting period that saw nine Republicans change their votes, deadlocked at 210-210 and defeated. The issue is by no means resolved. The appropriations bill must still go through a conference committee to harmonize it with the Senate version, and House Republican leaders hope to strip the amendment from the bill."
Contact your Congressional representatives and the President today and let them know how you feel about the Patriot Act.
For more information from the American Library Association go to: www.ala.org/ala/issues/takeaction/takeaction.htm
Ongoing Challenges:
OUR NATION'S LIBRARIES NEED FUNDS!
Let your government representatives and the media know how you feel about the current state of public and school libraries. Many school and public libraries across the country are seriously cutting back their hours of operation and spending because of reduced funding. In the fight for literacy, libraries are a top priority. It is time to take a stand and do something about it.
For more information concerning federal funding for libraries go to: www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/washfunding/funding.htm
For information concerning the state of your local public library, call your neighborhood library, and they will direct you to local and state information sources.
LITERACY PROGRAMS IN NEED OF FUNDS AND VOLUNTEERS
Many local and national literacy programs are dependent on state and federal funding. Check out your favorite literacy organization’s website (click here for a list of resources) and see how you can help them get the government funding they need. They will also have information on how you can become a literacy volunteer.