Rep. Joseph N. Amaral is sponsoring a piece of legislation that would exempt books sold in schools from the state’s 7 percent sales tax. It’s not going to pass.
Not this year, anyway.
That’s not my opinion. It’s Amaral’s.
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The Tiverton Republican, an assistant principal at Portsmouth Middle School, does not expect the measure to become law in 2002. Not in a year when the state is facing a deep budget shortfall and many legislators are preoccupied with what effect redistricting will have on their political fortunes.
"It’s going to be hard to get any bill out of the General Assembly this year," he says. "There’s a lot of tension up there."
But Amaral is not deterred. This is about an issue he believes in deeply and as long as he is at the State House, he’s going to push for it. And when it does pass?
"The kids are going to get a powerful message from the General Assembly — that we value literacy," he says.
Last year Amaral introduced a far broader bill, one that would have mandated that any child under the age of 13 who purchased a book anywhere in the state would not have to pay sales tax. That measure didn’t get very far. This year, Amaral is back with a proposal that would exempt from state sales tax any book – not just textbooks and workbooks – sold on school premises. That would include, he said, book fairs and fundraisers.
The goal is simple, says Amaral.
"To get books in the hands of kids," he says.
Amaral does not believe those who oppose his idea are concerned so much about lost revenues.
"They’re afraid this will open up a Pandora’s Box," he says.
But Pandora’s Box is hardly locked shut. There are, for example, 56 categories of items exempt from Rhode Island’s sales tax, including textbooks, Bibles, certain foods, gasoline and newspapers.
Amaral got the idea for the legislation after following the plight of students at the Mary M. Walsh Elementary School in Springfield, Massachusetts.
In 2000, students at the school failed to bring in enough money to cover the Bay State’s sales tax for a book fair fundraiser they held.
That experience motivated the students to lobby for legislation to remove the state’s 5 percent sales tax on children’s books. They met with state leaders and tax officials, collected 3,000 signatures on a petition and earned the support of Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby and U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
The legislation was ultimately rejected by the Massachusetts State Legislature.
But the students’ attempt moved Amaral. And he was only further convinced of the need to promote literacy a couple of months ago when state education officials unveiled the results of a review of basic reading skills of elementary school students throughout Rhode Island. The results showed many students lagging behind their counterparts across the country.
"The biggest problem we have is the literacy issue," says Amaral. "You can’t write well unless you can read books and foster an imagination."
For Amaral, the legislation is personal. He’s got two children, 22 months and 11 months. Like any parent, he wants them to have advantages.
Amaral remembers entering first grade and not speaking a word of English. He remembers being in a special reading program for a few years. But then he remembers catching up. And he remembers a sixth grade English teacher who came in at the beginning of the year and dropped dozens of paperbacks in the classroom. And Amaral remembers reading them and writing about them – and all the wonderful places those books took him.
As an educator, Amaral has seen a change in children in recent years – and it’s not a good one. Television, he says, is doing a job on them.
"Kids today have largely become passive observers," he says.
So on this issue, Amaral is going to fight.
Reps. John Savage, Bruce Long, Susan Story, Elizabeth Dennigan and Carol Mumford have all signed on as co-sponsors.
"I am convinced that this bill will pass eventually…I’m in for the long haul," he says. "If we can get children motivated to read during their elementary school years, then it will likely be a habit that stays with them throughout life."
Sometimes when you open a Pandora’s Box, something very important pops out.
