Hello All: if you tried Senator Murphy ' s office at the number belowand received the message that the number is no longer in service....it is a typo! 
The number on Murphy ' s website is 202-224-4041. I called and received a recording "we can't come to the phone etc...." But I left a message.
Good luck to you.


-------- Original message --------
From: Sara Kelly Johns
Date:04/12/2015 9:21 AM (GMT-05:00)
To: aaslforum@lists.ala.org,ALA Council
Subject: [aaslforum] ESEA Alert: Urgent: Help Sen. Whitehouse Help School Libraries--calls needed MONDAY

Good news! Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) will offer an amendment this Tuesday to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) calling for an “effective school library program” to be part of that bill when it comes before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP Committee) for a vote. 

Are you represented by one of these members of the Senate HELP Committee? If so, use the links below to call them on Monday to support Senator Whitehead's amendment on TUESDAY. He needs 13 other senators to support this. Emily Sheketoff's message with talking points is below.


Strong School Libraries mean Strong Students--and strong libraries of ALL types.

Thank you, Sara
~~~
Sara Kelly Johns
Instructor, Mansfield University School Library & Information Technologies Program
Immediate Past President, New York Library Association
Executive Board, American Library Association
AASL Past President (2007-08)
67 Canaras Ave.
Saranac Lake, NY 12983
skjohns@gmail.com
PH: 518-569-2339

"All knowledge is spendable currency, depending on the market"--Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Emily Sheketoff <esheketoff@alawash.org>
Date: Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 6:23 PM
Subject: [alacro-l] Call for School Libraries Today
To: "alacro-l@lists.ala.org" <alacro-l@lists.ala.org>


If you are one of the 22 states below, please put on your state’s listserv and anything else to get folks to call….thanks.

 

URGENT: If you support school libraries, NOW is the time (not later, not tomorrow, but RIGHT NOW) to contact your Senator to help save them.  We won’t have a better chance than this for years. 

 

The Senate HELP Committee will begin voting on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) on Tuesday, April 14 at 10 am.  School libraries are NOT already included in that bill, so we need to pass an amendment to fix that.  Even our paltry Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) funding has been cut.  Senator Whitehouse (D-RI) has agreed to offer an amendment calling for an effective school library program to be part of the bill…..but he needs at least 13 votes to prevail in the Committee. Your Senator is on that Committee and we badly need them to be one of those 13.  Unless you ask Your Senator for their vote, we won’t get it and NOW is the time….

 

Call your Senator right now.  Ask whoever answers for the “education staffer.”  Tell them, or their voice mail if necessary, how important school librarians are to students’ education and that the Senator needs to tell Senator Whitehouse NOW that they will support his “school library amendment” to ESEA.

 

PLEASE CALL NOW and get anybody else who cares about school libraries or education in your state to call as well.

 

 

If you are from the following states, you need to call this Senator NOW

 

Tennessee call Senator Alexander at 202-224-4944

Wyoming call Senator Enzi at 202-224-3432

North Carolina call Senator Burr at 202-224-3154

Georgia call Senator Isakson at 202-224-3643

Kentucky call Senator Paul at 202-224-4343

Maine call Senator Collins at 202-224-2523

Alaska call Senator Murkowski at 202-244-6665

Illinois call Senator Kirk at 202-224-2854

South Carolina call Senator Scott at 202-224-6121

Utah call Senator Hatch at 202-224-5251

Kansas call Senator Roberts at 202-224-4774

Louisiana call Senator Cassidy at 202-224-5824

Washington call Senator Murray at 202-224-2621

Maryland call Senator Mikulski at 202-224-4654

Vermont call Senator Sanders at 202-224-5141

Pennsylvania call Senator Casey at 202-224-6324

Minnesota call Senator Franken at 202-224-5641

Colorado call Senator Bennet at 202-224-5852

Rhode Island call Senator Whitehouse at 202-224-2921

Wisconsin call Senator Baldwin at 202-224-5653

Connecticut call Senator Murphy at 202-244-4041

Massachusetts call Senator Warren at 202-224-4543

 

Talking Points:

Point 1: While reading and books are mainstays of the school library program, today’s effective school library programs are also sophisticated learning environments that provide the education and necessary skills to succeed in college and the workplace.

Point 2: Across the United States, studies have demonstrated that students in schools with effective school library programs learn more, get better grades, and score higher on standardized tests than their peers in schools without such resources.

Point 3: NCES data reveals that approximately 8,830 public schools across the nation do not have a school library and for those schools that do have a library, nearly 17,000 schools do not have a full or part-time state-certified school librarian on staff.

Point 4: Effective school libraries:

1. Are staffed by a state-certified school librarian;

2. Have up-to-date books, materials, equipment and technology;

3. Include regular collaboration between classroom teachers and school librarians to assist with development and implementation of the curriculum; and

4. Support the development of digital literacy skills.