February 2010
President Obama to Seek Sweeping Change in "No Child" Law
February 2010 - NY Times | The Obama administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of President Bush’s signature education law, No Child Left Behind, and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination of the law’s 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency.
Educators who have been briefed by administration officials said the proposals for changes in the main law governing the federal role in public schools would eliminate or rework many of the provisions that teachers’ unions, associations of principals, school boards and other groups have found most objectionable.
Yet the administration is not planning to abandon the law’s commitments to closing the achievement gap between minority and white students and to encouraging teacher quality.
Significantly, said those who have been briefed, the White House wants to change federal financing formulas so that a portion of the money is awarded based on academic progress, rather than by formulas that apportion money to districts according to their numbers of students, especially poor students. The well-worn formulas for distributing tens of billions of dollars in federal aid have, for decades, been a mainstay of the annual budgeting process in the nation’s 14,000 school districts.
Peter Cunningham, a Department of Education spokesman, acknowledged that the administration was planning to ask Congress for broad changes to the education law, but declined to describe the changes specifically. More...
President Obama Proposes Small Cuts and Consolidations to Arts Programs in FY 2011 Budget
February 2010 - Americans for the Arts | President Obama today released the final details of his FY 2011 budget request to Congress which includes the nation’s cultural agencies and programs, including the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Institute for Museums and Library Services, and the Department of Education’s Arts in Education program.
In a press statement Americans for the Arts President and CEO Bob Lynch said, "The Administration’s FY 2011 budget request of $161.3 million for the National Endowment for the Arts—while just a fraction of the $6.3 billion of direct expenditures for all arts nonprofits in the U.S.—is unfortunately a $6 million decrease from what Congress appropriated for FY 2010. We now turn to Congress to continue its investment trend in providing additional appropriations for the NEA." More...
U.S. Department of Education Holds Ground-breaking "Stakeholders" Meeting on Arts Education Policy
January 2010 - ARTSblog | This past week I attended a U.S. Department of Education “stakeholders” meeting on the reauthorization of the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The meeting was ground-breaking since it was the first time that the national arts education community had been invited to specifically address the reauthorization policy efforts. Since last June, the Department has been holding these meetings on various reform topics, typically broad and encompassing multiple sectors of the education universe. The meeting was led by Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement (OII) Jim Shelton and attended by Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development (PEPD) Carmel Martin, OII Associate Assistant Deputy Secretary Scott Pearson, and PEPD Deputy Assistant Secretary Emma Vadehra. More...
U.S Department of Education's Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Program
January 2010 | The U.S. Department of Education has ear-marked an estimated $7,700,000 for innovative arts in education programs. The Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Program will offer an estimated 28 awards of approximately $275,000 each for innovative elementary and middle school arts education initiatives. To check eligibility, go here. Application and other details found here.
2010 Kennedy Center Schools of Distinction in Arts Education Award
January 2010 | The Pennsylvania Alliance for Arts Education recently announced an award opportunity for schools in Pennsylvania. If your school has an excellent arts education program, consider nominating it for the 2010 John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Schools of Distinction in Arts Education Awards. More information and the nomination form have been posted to the Keyarts wiki at http://keyarts.wikispaces.com/advocacy. Nominations are due by March 22, 2010.
