Consider the Coalition (Part II): How Are We Doing?

By Gerri Fegan
School Librarian at High Plain Elementary School, Andover

In my August 2009 President’s Message for MSLA Forum, I discussed the need for meaningful coalitions with our educational partners in Massachusetts. I had no idea that controversies would arise within only a month of that printing that would rock the foundation of our profession and require us to rely on these partners almost immediately.  For almost six months, newspapers and other media have asked the question, “Why not have school libraries without books?” 

The responses have been logical and passionate, angry and resigned, deliberate and off-the-cuff, but the one thing they all had in common: the role of the school librarian is still essential to instruct students on whatever informational tools they choose.  Teachers, parents, administrators, legislators, and the students themselves have declared that school librarians are the keys to understanding how the tools are used successfully.  This controversy just might help school librarians more than hurt us.  We have always wanted someone outside the profession to speak out about the need for vibrant school library programs and now we have it in mass media format. 

How has MSLA responded to all the attention?  I refer you to Ann Marie Speicher’s letter to MSLA Executive Director to Kathy Lowe for MSLA’s advocacy activities.

More examples of MSLA’s roadmap of advocacy and collaboration:

• Christine Steinhauser is creating an advocacy tool that portrays the “day in the life” of the school librarian that will be presented at MLA/MSLA Joint Legislative Day at the State House on March 9th.
• Kathy Lowe will speak to a group of Massachusetts Superintendents who are members of a committee, Global Studies for the 21st Century. She will explain how AASL Standards benefits students and 21st Century learning.
• Judi Paradis will once again supervise the Legislative Day events with MLA to address the funding issues surrounding the new Massachusetts budget. We will be targeting the legislative library caucus.
• The Massachusetts Reading Association will be attending the spring MSLA board meeting to collaborative.
• I will be attending the Mass. PTA Conference to discuss the parent volunteer situation within our schools.
• At my request, Governor Patrick will write an article for the MSLA Forum to be “the Champion for Massachusetts School Libraries.”
• The MSLA Board is analyzing the state of school libraries in Massachusetts using statistics that have been generously provided by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.  This is the beginning of a significant coalition with the Department that will open up several possibilities in advocacy.
  
• Valerie Diggs and her committee will be working to align the MSLA rubrics for evaluating school library programs with the AASL Standards.
• I will be attending the Massachusetts Reading Association’s conference to promote the collaborative efforts.
• MSLA Board members will attend a regional summit on June 5th with the New England School Library Association that will explore each state’s board members’ roles in an effort to share successful programs and to work on solutions to common problems.
• Sandy Kelly will be organizing a database of coalition partners and contacts so that we can have liaisons on other organizations’ committees.
• Christine Steinhauser will work with a to-be-named chairperson to develop a database of authors/illustrators who live or perform in Massachusetts. This resource will double as a list of authors/illustrators who advocate for Massachusetts school librarians.  MSLA members who seek a performance, lesson, or Skype visit by our supporting authors/illustrators will be able to use this database.

It appears that, with the board hard at work and the membership discussing school libraries in a variety of media, the "wheel of influence" is off to a great start. In the last six months, we have collaboratively worked with no less than nine organizations that serve as partners in our children's education. I had hoped that the wheel would met the road, and that school libraries would be recognized as the thrust behind student success. I am delighted with the results so far.

We still have a few hurdles to overcome, however. We were all disheartened when President Obama's FY2011 Budget Proposal to Congress this month eliminated specific funds for school libraries. In response to this setback for our children's education, I sent the following response to the President, Senators Kerry and Brown, and to the Boston Globe urging all stakeholders to remember school libraries in this budget and to protect the "Improving Literacies through School Libraries Program":

To the Editor:

The President’s FY2011 Budget Proposal to Congress, released on February 1, 2010 includes a $400 billion investment in education, but eliminates specific funds for school libraries.  This contradicts many of the President’s statements issued during his campaign, his State of the Union Address, and especially his proclamation making October 2009 National Information Literacy Month.  School librarians in Massachusetts, who have already borne the brunt of fiscal cuts, are wondering why we are hearing a contradictory message when it comes to the President’s goals for education.

In an interview published in the August 2005 issue of American Libraries, then Presidential candidate Obama commented:

“That’s what libraries are about. At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better. It’s an enormous force for good. . . More than a building that houses books and data, the library represents a window to a larger world, the place where we’ve always come to discover big ideas and profound concepts that help move the American story forward and the human story forward. That’s the reason why, since ancient antiquity, whenever those who seek power would want to control the human spirit, they have gone after libraries and books.”

Does the President’s budget proposal continue the former administration’s tradition of controlling America’s schools and the spirit of its school children?  This policy would weaken our nation’s schools in ways that are indeterminable. School librarians teach children how to become informed adults, prepare them for careers that haven’t been invented yet, instruct them in the process of being able to read, appreciate, evaluate, and utilize everything in print and online.  We serve as their mentors when they need to evaluate news that has been filtered through a variety of media. We guide them through the democratic process to become global citizens.

Dr. Beth Fitzsimmons, Chairman of the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, revealed findings of a nationwide study in School Libraries Work (Scholastic Library Publishing, 2008) that “a critical part of the comprehensive and renewed strategy to ensure that students learn to read and are effective users of information and ideas is the requirement that every school have a school library and that school libraries be staffed by highly qualified, state certified school library media specialists.”  How can the removal of funding for school libraries be a responsible solution for American education?

Now, more than ever, students across this country deserve school library programs that are vibrant and enduring.  The role of the school librarian is even more critical today. Without the expertise of a professional school librarian, there is a danger that students may receive their information isolated, unquestioned and unexamined.  School administrators, teachers, parents and students have not supported any efforts to remove school librarians because they appreciate the role of the certified school librarian.  When these positions have had to be cut due to fiscal constraints, it has been with regret and a promise to reinstate the programs when funds become available. 

The President proclaimed in October, 2009 that:

“In addition to the basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic, it is equally important that our students are given the tools required to take advantage of the information available to them. The ability to seek, find, and decipher information can be applied to countless life decisions, whether financial, medical, educational, or technical.  This month, we dedicate ourselves to increasing information literacy awareness so that all citizens understand its vital importance. An informed and educated citizenry is essential to the functioning of our modern democratic society, and I encourage educational and community institutions across the country to help Americans find and evaluate the information they seek, in all its forms.”

How can American schools possibly align themselves with this ideology while being deprived of the funds that will help them accomplish these skills?  If school libraries are the hearts of their schools, appreciated by community leaders and families, and the conduits for preparing students for increasing literacy awareness, why is the President considering these budget cuts?

It appears that the President’s budget proposal, which will put federal funds out of the reach of the children who need them the most, will also give school administrators carte blanche to eliminate school library programs.  Those of us who heard President Obama speak at the America Library Association’s Annual Conference in Chicago in 2005 and dared to be “hopefully audacious” are in despair today.  Typically, education policy announcements are set in school libraries where legislators poignantly surround themselves with youngsters and library books.  If these proposals go through, it will be interesting to see where these “feel good” messages will come from.

It is essential that our nation’s lawmakers reject these proposals by the Administration, include school libraries in the education budget, and protect the Improving Literacy through School Libraries Program.

Respectfully,
Geraldine J. Fegan
President, Massachusetts School Library Association