YALSA Call to Action

From an email sent by YALSA:

Support the SKILLs Act: Urge your Senators to co-sponsor S. 1699 and your Representative to co-sponsor H.R. 2864.

On Tuesday June 26, Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Representatives Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) introduced the Strengthening Kids’ Interest in Learning and Libraries (SKILLs) Act that guarantees students across America will be served by highly qualified, state-certified school library media specialists and will have the library resources they need to succeed.

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; and
• 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.

Urgent Action Needed:

This legislation is critical to the future of school library media specialists. Contact your Senators and ask them to cosponsor S. 1699. Contact your Representative to co-sponsor H.R. 2864.

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.
• Long regarded as the cornerstone of the school community, school libraries are no longer just for books. Instead, they have become sophisticated 21^st 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.