AASL Member Forum

In April, Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and Representative Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-07) re-introduced the Right to Read Act to protect our school libraries from censorship and disinvestment. Since then, 35 members of Congress have co-sponsored this critical legislation. School librarians need more support in their fight for their students' right to read.

Every learner deserves a school librarian. Towards that goal, we need you and your colleagues to contact key library and education supporters in Congress to get them signed on to this bill. Click below to tell your members of Congress to support school libraries, then share this action with your community:

We need to steadily build support for this bill and show Congress that our school libraries are a priority. As a reminder, the Right to Read Act would:

·        Protect the Constitutional rights of students to access information through effective school libraries staffed by school librarians

·        Extend liability protections to teachers and school librarians

·        Authorize $500 million in Comprehensive Literacy State Development Grants and $100 million for Innovative Approaches to Literacy Programs to help provide needed literacy resources and build strong and effective school libraries led by a certified school librarian

Take action now to show Congress that the library community fights for less censorship and more resources for teaching and learning in our schools. To see if your member has co-sponsored, see these linked lists of House and Senate co-sponsors.

Write to Congress, share, and spread the word about this crucial school library bill:

Thank you for all you do for libraries and their learners!  

ALA Public Policy & Advocacy Team