Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Il Dolce Suono

The exciting news, according to The New York Times, is that:

"The economic stimulus plan that Congress has scheduled for a vote on Wednesday would shower the nation’s school districts, child care centers and university campuses with $150 billion in new federal spending, a vast two-year investment that would more than double the Department of Education’s current budget."

My heart takes wing, but here is the problem.

I think I work in the field of "Education" but I'm mistaken.

We are professional Teaching Artists. Our field is categorized as "Arts-in-Education" or "Arts Education" or whatever is popular or accurate at the moment. I'm not a linguist.

Arts in Education versus Education.

It's a small distinction, but an exclusionary one as far as funding is concerned.

So we are out of luck unless we start yelling for our piece of the Education funding pie right now. The organizations that represent the field of Education will get the money and we will get the boot. There's going to be a line of wolves at the table and everyone loves pie.

Join something:

Americans for the Arts

NYC Arts in Education Roundtable

Association of Teaching Artists

Also: The Fifth Element is Love.



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