Washington state petition needs signatures--grassroots action

Know any one in Washington state? Below is a link to an ALA news story about the efforts to rescue school library positions in Washington, an effort led by the "Spokane Moms." They are looking for 6380 (the number of the Senate bill) signatures by Friday from Washington state residents.

http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2008/january2008/washingtonskills.cfm

I found out about this effort through a Google news feed and then quickly received a nudge from Doug Johnson. After I sent the news story to ALA Director Keith Fiels who had promised to get ALA's support of school library position cuts when there was a community group to work with, ALA and AASL ramped up the Advocacy Office and the Public Information Office (PIO). AASL Executive Director Julie Walker has been talking to and e-mailing with the Spokane Moms almost every day!

Julie, ALA President Loriene Roy, staffers from the PIO and Advocacy Office and I will all be on the scene on Friday at a rally at the state capital in Olympia. You can help by contacting anyone you know in Washington who could sign the petition--some may ask others to join the effort.

Here is the link to the Fund our Future Washington web site and the petition:
http://www.fundourfuturewashington.org/index.html
If you click on the "Rally" link, you will see what we all will be doing on Friday--grassroots action.

AASL has long put together resources and training for advocacy, marketing and promotion of strong school libraries and each of us needs to include those as part of our work, but passionate parents and students are the most powerful advocates we can have. We see this action as the basis for a national model and encourage other states to seize and create opportunities for rescuing and strengthening school library programs--to the benefit of the students we teach.

So...know anyone in Washington?

Comments

[Rob Darrow]

Hey Sara - This is great for Washington State - keep us posted!