Meeting with Legislators on Advocacy Day

I had secured appointments with my Congressman, Dana Rohrabacher, and Patrick Scandling, the Legislative Research Assistant of Barbara Boxer.

The ASK:
Fund the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) at 300Million

Fund Improving Literacy Through School Libraries at 100Million

Include in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA -- formerly No Child Left Behind) a library and librarian at every school

Meeting with Representative Rohrabacher
I was super worried about my meeting with Rep. Rohrabacher because I knew he was voting against all the initiatives that were being put forth by ALA. A huge stroke of luck, was that I met the director of my local library in Huntington Beach, who had an appointment with Reb. Rohrabacher's legislative assistant immediately following my appointment. Since I was a constituent I had an appointment directly with the Congressman but Stephanie Beverage works in the city and is not a constituent. We decided to team up, which was a great idea, since she had knowledge that directly related to the city library, and I was a constituent, and had access to the Congressman. Stephanie was a great mentor. She came fully prepared with a packet of information regarding the use of the Huntington Beach Library and the programs that directly benefited from the LTSA grant funding we were asking to support.

I was taken aback at how vehemently Representative Rohrabacher spoke against the federal government supporting local libraries. He spoke alarmingly about the size of the deficit, and how soon we'll be selling off the land in America to pay off what we owe to China. Stephanie was very good at directing him back to the topic by explaining how the LTSA grant had helped her library specifically to offer programs that help people help themselves become better educated citizens. Dana Rohrabacher disagreed with the policy of public libraries offering programs. He believes that the mission of the public library is to simply provide the information and that they should not be welfare agencies. Welfare should be left up to religious and volunteer organizations. He thinks that even story time is taking over the role that parents should have in their child's education. He was very knowledgeable about the history of libraries and talked about Carnegie establishing libraries to provide information. Stephanie countered with Carnegie himself called the library a poor man's university.

I chimed in about how as a resident I use the library services, including story time, even though I read to my children at home as well. I also let him know that the public library needs to teach their patrons how to find the information they need through programs because they are not getting it in schools. I then pointed out that our local high school district (Ocean View Unified High School District) now has one librarian for 6 schools, and the elementary schools are being run by clerks who can only check in and out books. There is a gap there that needs to be filled because of a lack of school librarians. I think he was surprised by that (Yeah, my contribution for school libraries!). I did put in THE ASK for ESEA to be reauthorized to include a library and librarian at every school, but he beleives that the states should make those kind of decisions, not the federal government.

Representative Rohrabacher spoke very highly of the Huntington Beach Library and even had some suggestions for improvement. I hope to follow up with asking for his endorsement to support libraries at the local and state level, since that's where he seemed to be directing us.

Meeting with Senator Boxer's Office
My second meeting was much more comfortable, but with my confidence boosted from watching Stephanie Beverage's interaction, I felt much better prepared to go it alone. I met with Patrick Scandling, the Legislative Research Assistant of Barbara Boxer. He mostly just listened and asked a few questions. I was able to give him Stephan Krashen's study published in the CSLA journal which shows the impact that having books available for students can have in reducing the affects of poverty. I advocated for libraries and librarians in every school in the ESEA reauthorization. I mentioned how my daughter in FIRST GRADE was assigned to do a 3 page research paper on an American Symbol, yet there is no librarian in her school. I also included in the packet some advocacy materials from YALSA, and Connie Williams CD: Circulate This: Stories from the School Library. I also told some personal stories regarding the impact that testing has on schools and how unfair linking teacher pay to test scores would be to teachers in poverty areas such as my own district (off the agenda, yes, but i feel so strongly, I had to throw it in).

I don't know if I made a difference in the decision making of these politicians, but I ended up educating myself about these issues so I can better speak to them. I learned a ton about advocacy, and am now more prepared to speak out for libraries and the teens we serve.