For Immediate Release
July 21, 2005

Contact:
Bernadette Murphy
Washington Communications Director
(202) 628-8410
bmurphy@alawash.org

ALA applauds House bill allowing student loan forgiveness for librarians

(Washington, DC) Today the American Library Association hailed the House Education and the Workforce Committee for its work on the Higher Education reauthorization bill. The marked-up version of the bill includes an amendment – the Librarian Education and Development Act - that provides for student loan forgiveness for librarians in low-income areas.

Full-time librarians working in a public branch or central library; elementary or secondary school who are eligible under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 can qualify for up to a forty percent cancellation of their Perkins loans based on years of service. “We want to thank the committee for its work and especially we want to thank Representative Grijalva for promoting the bill in committee,” said Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the American Library Association’s Washington Office. “Loan forgiveness means that more people will be able to attend library school at a time when much of the profession is nearing retirement age. The bill will also help foster greater diversity in the library profession”.

“Along with First Lady Laura Bush’s 21^st Century Education Program, the Librarian Education and Development Act helps to address the anticipated shortage of librarians in the coming years,” she concluded.