ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 9, Number 27 April 3, 2000 In this issue: ACTION NEEDED: ESEA SENATE FLOOR ACTION MAY BEGIN BEFORE RECESS It appears that floor debate on S. 2, the major Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization legislation, may begin before the Senate adjourns for its Spring recess on April 14. It is Senator Jack Reed's intention to submit S. 1262, the school library media resources bill, as an amendment during debate on S. 2. In order for a successful vote on his amendment, school library supporters should contact Senators. ACTION NEEDED: School library supporters should call, write, and visit local offices of Senators asking for their support on including S. 1262 in the final version of S.2. Your Senator will have the opportunity to vote on S. 2 and on Senator Reed's amendment (S. 1262) when the bill reaches the floor. Please contact his or her office and ask for support. Use the ALA Legislative Action Center (congress.ala.org), but be sure to send a paper copy of your letter as well. For Senator Reed's amendment to pass and be included in S. 2 ESEA reauthorization, it must get more Republican support. The following Senators have the most likely potential to be supportive on this issue. Senators from the following states in particular should be contacted: MAINE, Sen. Olympia Snowe; OREGON, Sen. Gordon Smith; ALASKA, Sen. Ted Stevens; PENNSYLVANIA, Sen. Arlen Specter; Sen. Rick Santorum; TENNESSEE, Sen. Fred Thompson; NEW MEXICO, Sen. Pete Domenici; OHIO, Sen. George Voinovich; ILLINOIS, Sen. Peter Fitzgerald; MISSOURI, Sen. Kit Bond; VIRGINIA, Sen. John Warner; DELAWARE, Sen. William Roth, Jr.; MICHIGAN, Sen. Spencer Abraham; COLORADO, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell; TEXAS, Sen, Kay Bailey Hutchinson. (Senate Switchboard Number is: (202) 224-3121) Members of School Library Media Associations in these states can alert their membership as well as related organizations that can support the Reed amendment like the Parent Teachers Associations. There have been a number of articles written in newspapers from various states investigating the sad state of school library materials. The latest articles appeared on March 22 in Education Week, "Study Shows Rise in Test Scores Tied to School Library Resources," by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, and on April 2 in the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette, "School Libraries See Federal Cash Spent Elsewhere," by Karen MacPherson. Now is the time to act and thanks for your help. NOTE: Senator Reed's office is collecting examples of out of date reference materials, and old science books, history books etc. If you have some titles to share, please e-mail them to the web site: http:www.senate.gov/~reed/html. Examples can be used as talking points by sponsors of S. 1262 during debate on the floor. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Mary Costabile, Peter Kaplan, Miriam Nisbet and Claudette Tennant. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell and Saundra Shirley.