Senator Jack Reed invites RIEMA President
to testify at ESEA Hearing
April 22, 2010 – Washington, DC
As the budget battle continues to rage in Rhode Island and across the nation with potentially devastating cuts to education services, Rhode Island legislators and education leaders agree on at least one very important thing – school libraries and certified teacher-librarians are essential to ensuring student achievement in our schools.
Rhode Island Educational Media Association President and Library Media Specialist at Hugh Cole School in Warren, RI, Jamie Greene took Rhode Island’s message of support for school libraries and teacher-librarians to Washington, DC today testifying before the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions regarding the Elementary and Secondary School Reauthorization Act (ESEA): Educating the Whole Child.
Invited by Rhode Island Senator and library champion Jack Reed (D-RI), Ms. Green quoted Rhode Island Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Deborah A. Gist in her testimony, “Tomorrow’s graduates must be able to solve problems, think for themselves, learn independently, and find accurate and reliable information from among the millions of sources available to them at the click of a mouse. Students learn these valuable skills in school libraries and through effective library-media programs. We must continue to support these programs, which play a vital role in education today.”
Senator Jack Reed reiterated this message of the vital importance of school libraries and certified librarians and pledged to continue fighting for these educational services for students. Reed said, “School libraries and librarians play a vibrant and essential role in the effort to improve student achievement. I will continue fighting to maintain federal funding for school libraries to help ensure that our students develop the skills they need to succeed in school and in the workplace,” said U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI).
Rhode Island Senator David Bates and Representative Joy Hearn, Chairpersons of the Karla Harry Legislative Commission on Libraries, also support school libraries and certified teacher-librarians in every Rhode Island school. “It is imperative that today’s students have the skills necessary to not only locate information, but also to filter and process the fruits of their research,” said Senator David E. Bates. “Students must work through reams of information on the Internet. Given the wealth of information at the fingertips of the average student, it is now more important than ever that they know where to look for facts, and more importantly, to judge the validity of the information they find. Our school libraries and licensed library media specialists are a vital resource for students who depend on these skills.”
Representative Joy Hearn summarized what this testimony means to Rhode Island students and for students across the nation. “As Rhode Island collaboratively works to lead the nation in successfully educating our students for careers and for college in the 21st century, we must continue to lead by example and find a way to support and fund the essential services of school libraries and the certified teacher-librarians. Libraries in our RI schools are the foundation for student literacy, critical and creative thinking, communication, problem-solving and life-long learning.”
Please read Jamie’s testimony here: http://bit.ly/abT9y0
A video of the ESEA reauthorization can be seen here: http://bit.ly/ds4p2k.
“Tomorrow’s graduates must be able to solve problems, think for themselves, learn independently, and find accurate and reliable information from among the millions of sources available to them at the click of a mouse. Students learn these valuable skills in school libraries and through effective library-media programs. We must continue to support these programs, which play a vital role in education today.”
– RI Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, Deborah A. Gist