ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 9, Number 46 May 18, 2000 In this issue: (1) ESEA REAUTHORIZATION UPDATE (2) FURTHER DETAILS ON SENATE LABOR HHS-EDUCATION APPROPRIATIONS (3) APPROPRIATIONS CORRECTION ESEA REAUTHORIZATION UPDATE After heated debate on S.2 by both sides of the Senate aisle for a number of days last week, the bill was withdrawn from the floor schedule by the Senate leadership. Votes were taken on amendments to clarify that states cannot use block grant money for school vouchers; and on authorizing funds to support teacher testing and merit-based pay for teachers. The amendments passed. A Democratic alternative bill was proposed that included the library-supported Senator Reed amendment for school library resources, but the bill failed to pass on party lines, 54-45. A third alternative bill is in the process of being proposed by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) that does not currently include Sen. Reed's amendment. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) still intends to offer his amendment to S. 2 when the Senate resumes consideration of the ESEA reauthorization legislation. His staff is collecting examples of out-of-date, inaccurate school library books to use as visual aides when the amendment is discussed on the Senate floor. For further details see www.senate.gov/~reed/ As a result of Library Legislative Day visits, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) have both agreed to support Sen. Reed in offering his school library resources amendment. ACTION NEEDED: School library supporters should continue to contact Senate offices asking for support for the Reed school library amendment. Senate switchboard number is: 202-224-3121. FURTHER DETAILS ON SENATE LABOR HHS-EDUCATION APPROPRIATIONS School library supporters should note that the Senate Labor HHS Education Appropriations Subcommittee report (S. Rep. 106-293) recommends $3.1 billion for Innovative Education Program Strategies State Grants (ESEA Title VI). For FY 2001, $2.585 billion would be available for the block grant and the remainder would be forward funded to FY2002. While the Subcommittee lists the current uses of the block grant in the report, including "library books," it adds that "Funds may also be used to address the shortage of highly qualified teachers to reduce class sizes, particularly in early grades, using highly qualified teachers to improve educational achievement for regular and special needs children; to support efforts to recruit, train and retrain highly qualified teachers; or for renovating and constructing school facilities. It shall be the sole discretion of the Local Educational Agency to determine how best to use these funds." APPROPRIATIONS CORRECTION The ALAWON of 5/17/00 listed the FY2001 requested funding level for the Superintendent of Documents Office incorrectly. The correct requested level for FY2001 is $34.5 million. ****** 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.