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Please excuse cross-postings. Sandy Shuckett, long time activist for school library advocacy, posted this great explanation of the reasons to take the time to go to the ALA Washington Office action site to contact your Representatives, asking them to call Joseph Mais in order to co-sign the letter at 202.225.2435. http://capwiz.com/ala/issues/ alert/?alertid=13037141 THANKS, Sara From: Sara Kelly Johns <skjohns@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [aaslforum] Literacy Through School Libraries -- AN EXPLANATION To: aq061@lafn.org Date: Wednesday, April 1, 2009, 5:35 AM THANKS so much for posting this great explanation, Sandy...Capwiz will walk the people through reaching the right Congress members. It's SO easy and so crucial for everyone to take action today On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 8:51 PM, Sandy Schuckett <aq061@lafn.org> wrote: I have received many questions in regard to my request that people contact their U.S. Congress members and urge them to sign on to Rep. Raul Grijalva's "Dear Colleague" letter. Here are some facts. It's kinda long, but if you're not sure how Congress and federal funding work, please read it carefully....it's important. (If you already know how this works and have already contacted your own U.S. Rep, then you can ignore the rest of this message.......and -- thanks!) 1. Literacy Through School Libraries is currently a GRANT program, and California school libraries have received a VERY MINIMAL amount of this money over the years since it has been in effect. It is currently funded at $19.6 million (which wouldn't even be enough for California) for the whole country. 2. Legislation will be introduced asking that this program be funded at $100 million for FY 2010. This figure is the trigger that CHANGES IT FROM A GRANT PROGRAM and sends the money directly to State Departments of Education, where the money is then EQUALLY DISTRIBUTED to every public school in the state on a per-student basis. 3. If Rep.Grijalva can walk into the House of Representatives with 200+ signatures of his congressional colleagues from around the country, then he can show that people (constituents) really care about this issue. If he can't, then there is a BIG possibility that Congress can decide to TOTALLY DEFUND it, since people obviously don't care. This will create a situation that is even worse than the minimal grant program that now exists. It will mean ZERO federal support for school libraries. Rep. Grijalva has been one of our major heroes in the area of federal support for school libraries, and he is going out of his way to make this happen by creating his "Dear Colleague" letter. 4. ACT NOW! The deadline is tomorrow, April 1st. It would be a cruel April Fools prank if federal funding for school libraries is ended in this Congress because people didn't take a few minutes to ask their congress members to sign on to Rep. Grijalva's letter. This happened in 1996 when school library legislation was cleared 'off the books' because, as one legislator said, "I didn't hear anything from any of MY constituents about this." 5. If you don't know how to reach your own U.S. Rep. go to http://thomas.loc.gov Look for 'House of Representatives' in the left-hand column, and click on it. At the top of the next page, you can do one of two things: a) find your Representative by entering your zip code+4, and then contact them; or b) find your Representative's Web site by looking at an alphabetical list. Once you get to your Rep's. Web site, you will find a place where you can click and send them an e-mail. This is crucial......please do it today -- tomorow at the latest. Political Advocacy works -- but only if you DO IT! Your students will thank you. ss Sandy Schuckett California School Library Assn. Liaison to CTA 2312 Claremont Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90027 323-665-9811 aq061@lafn.org -- Sara Kelly Johns Immediate Past President American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Associate Editor for AASL Community, Knowledge Quest Library Media Specialist, Lake Placid Middle/Senior HS LMC 34 School Street Lake Placid, NY 12946 W: 518-523-2474, ext. 4132 Fax: 518-523-4861 johns@northnet.org skjohns@gmail.com "Information is the currency of democracy." -- Thomas Jefferson -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book. To change your LM_NET status, you send a message to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL 3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * LM_NET Help & Information: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/ * LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/ * EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/join.html * LM_NET Supporters: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/category/links/el-announce/ --------------------------------------------------------------------