14 SLISsards participated in the ALA-SC SKILLs Act Advocacy Activity on February 12th, tapping into their inner child and putting together 40 valentines!  Valentines urged elected officials to co-sponsor the Strengthen Kids' Interest in Learning and Libraries (SKILLs) Act.  The SKILLs Act "guarantees that students across America will be served by state-certified school library media specialists and will have the library resources they need to succeed."  To ensure the inclusion of the SKILLs Act in the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Bill, each member of the Senate must co-sponsor the act.

The SKILLs Act:

Requires school districts, to the extent feasible, to ensure that every school within the district employs at least one state-certified school library media specialist in each school library;

Establishes as a state goal that there be at least one highly qualified school library media specialist in every public school;

Broadens the focus of training, professional development, and recruitment activities to include school library media specialists;

Ensures that funds will serve elementary, middle, and high school students; and

Requires books and materials to be appropriate for and engage the interest of students in all grade levels and students with special learning needs, including English language learners.

SKILLs Act Talking Points:

Long regarded as the cornerstone of the school community, school libraries are no longer just for books. Instead, they have become sophisticated 21st century learning environments offering a full range of print and electronic resources that provide equal learning opportunities to all students, regardless of the socio-economic or education levels of the community – but only when they are staffed by school library media specialists trained to collaborate with teachers and engage students meaningfully with information that matters to them both in the classroom and in the real world.

Only about 60 percent of our school libraries have a full-time, state-certified school library media specialist on staff.

With limited funding and an increased focus on school performance, administrators are trying to stretch dollars and cut funds across various programs to ensure that maximum resources are dedicated to improving student academic achievement.

Because NCLB does not highlight the direct correlation between school library media specialists and increased student academic achievement, library resource budgets are increasingly being used to mitigate the effects of budgetary shortfalls.