MSLMA
2000-01 Legislative Initiative
S336

MSLMA is committed to the improvement of School Libraries.
To that end, we will actively promote legislation.

 

2000-2001 Fact Sheet	Rep. Larkin's Amendment 808 Budget Language 5/8/01 Update 5/24/01
Text of Legislation List of Legislators	Hearings Report From April 5, 2001  Joan Gallagher's updates on the progress of the legislation and some  Summaries of Testimonies Given
Legislative Sponsors of S336 Senator Susan Tucker (D. Andover) plus13 additional Senators and 18 Representatives	Questions for your Legislator concerning their awareness and support of S336

 

MSLMA Contact:  Peg Hallisey, 2 Summit Ave., Winchester, MA 01890 781-729-5728  phallisey@mediaone.net

MSLMA Legislative Liason: Christopher Gregory, Gregory & Associates 617-367-6449  Fax: 617-367-6299 chris.gregory@neec.org

2000-2001 Legislative Updates
S336

Update May 24, 2001
Budget Language May 8, 2001
Representative Larkin Proposes Amendment 808
        May 2, 2001
      Suggested letter to Rep. Larkin

Article in 12/00 School Library Journal,
    "Smart State Shortchanges School Libraries."
    Excellent information to include in a letter to your legislator

To keep you abreast of our legislative efforts at the
state level, I have spoken with our lobbyist Chris
Gregory and he advises us that the words 'library' was
included in Rep. Larkin's amendment to the Ed Reform
Bill House budget (ad. 808); we are attempting to get
the same wording in the senate's budget.  This wording
would start the process of recognizing the school
library as an entity in the schools and, hopefuly,
will leading to funding/standards in the future.

As you may be unaware, the legislative session is a
two year one; it ends on 12/30/02.  That means our
legislation is also still alive for that time, and
some action on that should be taken, hopefully, by
7/1/01.  Our bill then could be forwarded for study in
a committee, but for now our efforts/hope should focus
on the wording in the budget.

The language that was passed into the new FY 2002 House Budget is as follows:
Mr. Larkin of Pittsfield then moved that the bill be amended in section 17 by inserting after the word "Book", in line 38, the word ",libraries", : by inserting the word "books", in line 39, the word ", libraries,": and by inserting after the word "book", in line 39, the word ", libraries,". The amendments were adopted.

Connie Rizzoli, Staff Director of the Joint Education Committee, informs me that this language is the first recognition of libraries as individual entities in the foundation budget. This is a major step forward for us and can be directly attributed to the fine job done by the librarians who testified at the Hearing for our Bill and those who called and wrote to their legislators.

The next step for us is to try to hold the House language in the Senate when their budget  deliberations begin in mid June.

Hello fellow library media specialists,

Rep. Larkin, Chair of the Education Subcommittee, and
the representative for the Pittsfiled area, has filed
with the House Ways and Means Committee Amendment 808
to the state budget; to modify and move our bill S336
forward with more realiztic funding amounts.

For this 'go-round:

**$1 per student,
**maintenance of effort clause
**provision for school libraries to receive-and
keep-priviate and public funds

Please call Rep. Larkins' office to thank him for
proposing Amendment 808 to our bill S336.

All MSLMA'ers should call Rep. Larkin, members of the
House Ways and Means Committee and their local
representatives to encourage support for this bill.

We school people are asking so little; public
libraries are requesting over $20M from state
government this year (see www.mlin.org/flash3.html for
details); we are asking under $1 for the roughly
980,000 students in MA.

Thanks, if each of us does a little, we can do alot.

Joan G.

Here's a short note you could copy and send to Rep.
Larkin, if you choose e-mail over telephone.

Thank you so much, Rep. Larkin, for proposing
Amendment 808 to bill S336 to help school libraries.

The more realistic requested funding amount, the
inclusion of maintenance of effort wording and the
recognition of school libraries as entities that can
receive public and private funding are wonderful first
steps to revitalize these suffering treasurers in our
public schools,

Again, thanks,

Please contact your legislator (visit his / her office if you can) on or before the April 5th hearing before the Education Committee.  As suggested by our lobbyist, ask him/her (or his/her representative):

Are you aware of our bill S336?

If not, either send or give him/her a copy of the bill and the FACT SHEET (which can be downloaded from our site); give a short overview of the bill and the need for it.  Then say you shall call within a week to see if there are any questions?

Ask the legislator (or her/his representative), politely, but directly "Do you support the bill?"
    If so, thank you.  If not, “could I give you a copy of our fact sheet with reference to other documents that indicate the correlation between quality library programs and students achievement?  May I call you/speak with you later after you’ve read the documentation?"

Then ask:  "Would you be willing to write a letter  to the head of the Education Committee, Peter Larkins (of Pittsfield), endorsing the legislation?"
    If yes, thank you,
    If not, thank you.

To end, thank the person for his/her time and ask if there is anything else that you can do to facilitate the senator/representative’s awareness of our legislative effort.

 

Posted March 9, 2000 Updated August 18, 2001 Designed and Maintained by MSLMA Educational Technology Committee