Cesar Chavez Day-March 31-"Sí se puede." A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE. No. 335.

Cesar Chavez Day. March 31.
Chavez Day is a holiday in eight states (AZ, CA, CO, MI, NM, TX, UT, WI) and dozens of cities and counties throughout the nation. It is an opportunity for all people to honor the legacy of Cesar Chavez by getting involved in their communities and making the holiday a day on, not a day off.

ReInvesting in Community. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 334.

ReInvesting in Community for a Triple Bottom Line - Conference.
================
Terry Link, Director of the Office of Campus Sustainability is also
Environmental Studies Specialist and Head of the Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture Library.


Michigan State University's Community Economic Development Program and
Office of Campus Sustainability are hosting the 19th Annual Community Development Institute on April 5 at the Kellogg Center on the campus of MSU. This year's event will focus on emerging trends to align investments from institutional investors - university endowments, foundation
endowments, and pension funds with community development and socially and environmentally responsible goals.

Keynoting the event will be Dr. Hazel Henderson an economist, futurist and author and Vic DeLuca, president of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation. They will be joined by other leaders from Socially and Environmentally Resonsible Investing community highlighting emerging opportunities to rebuild our communities through sound financial, social, and environmental investments.

Concerned citizens, activists, students and scholars should join us for a day of
exploring exciting and emerging efforts to utilize institutional financial
capital to spark "responsible community development" in our own backyards.
Taking the single bottom line approach and optimizing it for a triple-bottom-line return.

For details --PFD file--see the conference brochure.


Terry Link, Director
Office of Campus Sustainability
Michigan State University

link@msu.edu
www.ecofoot.msu.edu

One planet, one family, one future

Narrowing the Curriculum. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 333.

"Narrowing the Curriculum" is a very sad result of Republican education policies. Librarians serving youth can help students who have had the heart cut from their educations.

The New York Times reported March 26,2005 that since the passage of the federal No Child Left Behind law, 71 percent of the nation's 15,000 school districts had reduced the hours of instructional time spent on history, music and other subjects to open up more time for reading and math. The Center on Education Policy survey (2006) looks at 299 school districts in 50 states. The New York Times article reports that the survey was conducted as part of a four-year study of No Child Left Behind and appears to be the most systematic effort to track the law's footprints through the classroom, although other authorities had warned of its effect on teaching practices.


See also A Shell Game: Federal Funds to Improve Schools (February 2006).

Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights of Los Angeles. A Librarian At Every Table. No. 332.

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1986 to advance the human and civil rights of immigrants and refugees in Los Angeles. As a multiethnic coalition of community organizations and individuals, CHIRLA aims to foster greater understanding of the issues that affect immigrant communities, provide a neutral forum for discussion, and unite immigrant groups to more effectively advocate for positive change.

Community Organizing. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 331.

COMM-ORG links academics and activists, and theory and practice, toward the goal of improving community organizing and its related crafts.

The COMM-ORG mission is to

* help connect people who care about the craft of community organizing.
* find and provide information that organizers, scholars, and scholar-organizers can use to learn, teach, and do community organizing.
* involve all COMM-ORG members in meeting those goals.

Fight Against Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 330.

"We reject current anti-immigrant legislation in the Senate Judiciary Committee, specifically Senator Specter's "Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act 2006," said Rev. Carol Been of The Interfaith Council for Religion, Race, Economic & Social Justice. "We denounce its draconian provisions that allow indefinite detention of non-citizens and designate all undocumented immigrants in the US as aggravated felons and designate in the same criminal class US citizens and legal residents who because of their professional or ministerial duties work with undocumented immigrants."

Immigration reform has received considerable attention in recent months, particularly within the Republican Party. NNIRR compares the impact of HR 4437/Sensenbrenner bill with proposals by President Bush and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA; Chair of Senate Judiciary Committee).

The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) is a national organization composed of local coalitions and immigrant, refugee, community, religious, civil rights and labor organizations and activists. It serves as a forum to share information and analysis, to educate communities and the general public, and to develop and coordinate plans of action on important immigrant and refugee issues.

We work to promote a just immigration and refugee policy in the United States and to defend and expand the rights of all immigrants and refugees, regardless of immigration status. The National Network bases its efforts in the principles of equality and justice, and seeks the enfranchisement of all immigrant and refugee communities in the United States through organizing and advocating for their full labor, environmental, civil and human rights.

Links:

National Immigration Law Center
Immigration Portal.
Migra Matters

Education for Global Citizenship.A Librarian at Every Table. No. 329.

This new flagship publication from Oxfam outlines the why, what, and how of Education for Global Citizenship. Aimed at teachers in all subjects, and across all age groups, it provides case studies outlining best practice in the classroom, examples of appropriate teaching approaches, and resources for further reading.
"Education for Global Citizenship: A Guide for Schools" is a free booklet for teachers that introduces the key elements of Oxfam's curriculum for Global Citizenship (knowledge, skills, and values), as well as providing case studies outlining best practice in the classroom, examples of appropriate teaching approaches, and resources for further reading.

Shame of the Nation. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 328.

In his new book Shame of the Nation: the Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America, Jonathan Kozol draws a grim picture of U.S. public schools, particularly those in poor urban neighborhoods. He graphically reports on the decaying infrastructure, the under-spending and overcrowding; the lack of art and music teachers, librarians, doctors—many of the things that are taken for granted in better-off, whiter public schools. But the central theme of Kozol's book, the theme that seems to connect these other troubling factors, is race. Kozol argues that racial segregation in public schools is beyond critical—perhaps as bad as it was three decades ago, with some formerly integrated schools becoming re-segregated.

A Better, More Just World Possible:Midwest Social Forum. A Librarian at Every Table.No. 327.

Midwest Social Forum.
The Midwest Social Forum is an annual gathering of grassroots organizations, community activists, artists, workers, educators, students, and others committed to making a better, more just world possible. It provides an open space for exchanging experiences and information, strengthening alliances and networks, and developing effective strategies for progressive social, economic, and political change.
Call for participation and proposals .

THE IMPACT OF STATE INCOME TAXES ON LOW-INCOME FAMILIES. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 326.

Poor families in many states face substantial state income tax liability for the 2005 tax year. In 19 of the 42 states that levy income taxes, two-parent families of four with incomes below the federal poverty line are liable for income tax. In 16 of the 42 states, poor single-parent families of three pay income tax. And 31 of these states collect taxes from two-parent families of four with incomes just above the poverty line. New report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Full Report: The Impact of State Income Taxes on Low Income Famiulies in 2005. pdf file.