U.S. Congress passes Reed Amendment

["Minkel, Walter (Cahners-NYC)" <WMinkel@CAHNERS.COM>]

Hi folks... I recently researched the journey of the Reed Amendment through
Congress for a news story in the January SLJ, & I wanted to let everyone
know some sort-of-good news & sort-of-bad news. You've probably heard that
Congress has passed the ESEA bill, which includes the Reed Amendment, which
would give federal funds specifically to school libraries for the first time
in more than 30 years. Congress voted (not on the floor, but in committee)
to authorise $250 million for school libraries, which is good.

Here's where the bad news comes in. Due to the shaky economy, the Senate
voted only $25 million of that $250 million for actual appropriation. The
House voted $-0-. The ESEA is in the Joint Appropriations Committee right
now, & the experts in the ALA Washington Office expect that the houses of
Congress will "split the difference," as they often do. Because of the way
they split it, $12 million will probably be what's appropriated & finally
passed when the federal education budget is funded, probably by the end of
this week.

One of the experts I interviewed joked sadly that $12 million for FY2003 for
the nation's school libraries "will give each library in the country about
25 cents." Thus, she said, we can probably expect the money to go to a
competitive grant program to be run by the U.S. Dept of Ed.

Thus the good news: Federal money has been set aside for school libraries
for the first time since 1968 or so. The bad news: The amount of money is
probably going to be _really_ small. But we can hope & lobby for more funds
for future fiscal years. We'll put up the amount of the actual appropriation
on the SLJ Web site as soon as we know what it is. Have a good (or hope you
had a good) holiday, W

------------------------------
Walter Minkel, Technology Editor, School Library Journal
www.slj.com * wminkel@cahners.com * 212-463-6721 * fax 212-463-6689

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=
All postings to LM_NET are protected under copyright law.
To quit LM_NET (or set-reset NOMAIL or DIGEST, etc.) send email to:
listserv@listserv.syr.edu   In the message write EITHER:
1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST
4) SET LM_NET MAIL  * Please allow for confirmation from Listserv.
For LM_NET Help see: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/
Archives: http://askeric.org/Virtual/Listserv_Archives/LM_NET.shtml
 See also EL-Announce for announcements from library media vendors:
    http://www.mindspring.com/~el-announce/
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=