You may want to send a message similar to the one below to the House
Education and Employment Inquiry committee and to your local federal
member. Empowering Local Schools WILL happen in every state. It is starting
with government schools and going to all schools by 2018.
Here are the current committee names and addresses:
Ms Amanda Rishworth MP (Chair) (Australian Labor Party, Kingston, SA)
Amanda.Rishworth.MP@aph.gov.au
Mr Rowan Ramsey MP (Deputy Chair) (Liberal Party of Australia, Grey, SA
rowan.ramsey.MP@aph.gov.au
Mrs Karen Andrews MP (Liberal Party of Australia, McPherson, Qld)
karenandrews@karenandrewsmp.com
Mrs Yvette D'Ath MP (Australian Labor Party, Petrie, Qld)
Yvette.D'Ath.MP@aph.gov.au
Ms Deborah O’Neill MP (Australian Labor Party, Robertson, NSW)
deborah.o'neill.mp@aph.gov.au
Mr Mike Symon MP (Australian Labor Party, Deakin,
Vic) mike.symon.mp@aph.gov.au
Mr Alan Tudge MP (Liberal Party of Australia, Aston,
Vic) alan.tudge.mp@aph.gov.au
We trust the House Education and Employment committee is
speeding along with its report on last year's Inquiry into School
Libraries and Teacher Librarians and we will see the Report tabled
soon.
However, we are very concerned that the report will come too late to
stem the growing tide of teacher librarian dismissals taking place in
Western Australia and South Australia, now following in Victoria's illinformed footsteps. Under WA's Independent Public Schools
program and South Australia's new teacher enterprise agreement,
principals are already acting to reduce their costs by replacing
teacher librarians with library officers or school support officers.
The South Australian government has now negotiated away any
safeguard for teacher librarian positions, and school support officers
are trying to cope with supporting teacher curriculum needs and
students who need to be taught how to find reliable information.
Western Australia’s government is going full-steam ahead with its
“Independent Public Schools” trial. Teacher librarians of 20 years are
suddenly supernumaries and feeling betrayed. Library Officers get
Level 2 pay to do a professional teacher’s job. Teachers and
students get short changed.
Do the real independent schools do this? Hardly! New $8 million
Resource Centre Learning Hub Libraries with four full-time
professional staff speak loud and clear to prospective parents.
(“Libraries turn a fresh page,” Sun Herald, 27 Feb 2011) They are
saying, “We know quality libraries support quality teaching and
learning.” Will the current review into school funding address the
inequity in public vs private school library staffing and funding?
We must ask you, what is Julia Gillard's Empowering Local Schools
policy really about? Without the funds of independent schools, it can
only be about shifting the responsibility and the blame to the local
school administration. Even Julia knows that NAPLAN literacy results
have been correlated with well-staffed and well-stocked school
libraries. The Inquiry committee has had plenty of evidence of this
during the Inquiry. Surely, Julia Gillard and Peter Garrett will have
already been told
With no professionally qualified TL, what do students lose? They lose:
 A trained professional who develops a targeted collection of
print and digital resources to support teaching and learning
 A teacher who can coordinate a whole school approach to
developing student information literacy skills
 A specialist in children’s literature who can excite and
encourage the love of reading
 An information specialist who can provide IT, literacy,
information literacy, copyright, and plagiarism PD to teachers

A specialist staff member who research has shown can make a
difference to student literacy and learning
Unless you stem this tidal wave, we will have a generation going
downhill on NAPLAN and literacy, because of irrational federal policy.
Students whose research skills consist of cut and paste from
unreliable Internet sources. NetGen students who can not follow a
continuous narrative argument.
Can you tell me why this policy is not put on hold until its
repercussions can be taken into account and until the Inquiry Report
is tabled and acted upon?
Thank you for your efforts and your concern,
Name,
Address