Advocacy

Fight for Music

According to the US Department of Labor's Web site, Tennessee's unemployment rate of 10.7 percent ranks considerably worse than the national average, which currently hovers at around 9.4 percent. While the state's public school music programs have been taken a hit, Gary Wilkes, orchestra director at the Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences and president of the Tennessee Music Educator Association, indicates that they aren't going down without a fight. As part of the ongoing series featuring state MEA leaders, SBO recently caught up with Mr. Wilkes to discuss how music education is holding up in the Volunteer State.

School Band & Orchestra: I know it's tough to make a general statement about a state, but, broadly speaking, how is this tough economy effecting music education in Tennessee?
Gary Wilkes: We've only heard of isolated cases of problems around the state. Some of the larger schools systems have consolidated programs due to retirement, and many metropolitan districts in Tennessee have offered incentives to entice some of the older teachers to retire. In those instances, I have seen several of those schools consolidating their music department, where, for example a band director might be teaching both band and orchestra, or band and choir. In Chattanooga, where I teach, we've had a few cases of a band director being asked to teach choir and another teaching part-time band and part-time orchestra.

SBO: You mean there has been a reduction in music teacher positions?
GW: I've only heard of four or five programs where the music program has been eliminated entirely, and that has only happened in some of the more rural school systems. Of course, we have a few counties here in Tennessee that are below poverty level, so their tax base is almost non-existent. They've eliminated programs, but I think it's also unfortunate because we have a mandate from the state school board that in order to get even a general education diploma from high school, you have to have one, and in some cases two, credits of Fine Arts. And those fine arts classes pretty much center around musical activities.

California: A State in Crisis

California is facing a tremendous fiscal crisis. With over 72 billion dollars in debt and a budget shortfall of more than 25 billion dollars, lawmakers have been scrambling to find ways to balance the state's troubled financial books. Unfortunately, any conceivable solution will undoubtedly take its toll on schools and other educational programs. Recent estimates have stated that as much as nine billion dollars may be slashed from the state's education budget, leaving teachers in all disciplines struggling to cope.

Against that dire and depressing backdrop, SBO recently caught up with Jeff Jenkins, a high school band director and president of the California Music Educators Association, who is one of the people leading the charge to protect California's music programs from the financial storm.

School Band & Orchestra: What is really happening with school music programs in California?
Jeff Jenkins: Music education in California has been in jeopardy for several years now. The first onslaught came from the unintended consequences of No Child Left Behind. Now, because of California's huge budget deficit and our struggling economy, schools are experiencing more cuts in available revenues to local school districts. These cuts have the potential to impact music education for years to come.

Good News, Bad News, and Exploding Myths

One of the great aspects of what I do is my role as private investigator I mean, researcher. For the better part of my career I have been in a constant search for information that might provide a true picture of what is happening in our public schools. The data I found led me to author our first report, The Sound of Silence: The Unprecedented Decline of Music Education in California Public Schools. The impact of this report it was the catalyst that lead the state of California to invest more than three-quarters of a billion dollars over the past three years to restore music programs convinced us that we were on the right track (see SBO August, 2006).

We followed the Sound of Silence with legislative work in Arkansas to help mandate music and art for every child (see SBO March, 2005). This was followed by last year's groundbreaking report for the state of New Jersey, Within Our Power: The Progress, Plight and Promise of Arts Education for Every Child. This was the first ever look at the status of arts education for every child measured in every school in the state. One of the actions taken as a result of this report included New Jersey becoming the first state in the nation to include the arts in district level accountability measure compliance with state policies. The first state ever (see SBO October, 2007).

Which brings me to our latest work, Arts Education in Wisconsin Public Schools: A Preliminary Review, which was commissioned by Arts Wisconsin, the state's arts service, advocacy, and development organization, and the Wisconsin Alliance for Arts Education, the statewide organization dedicated to arts education. The report was analyzed and prepared by Music for All (with yours truly as the lead author). It provides the first detailed research conducted on the state of arts education in Wisconsin and was released a few weeks ago at a special statewide meeting.

Tools of the Trade

Time to get ready for the new school year, which means planning your programs, selecting your music, getting your lesson plans arranged, reviewing your student roster, instrumentation or vocal range and... planning your advocacy activities!

What, you didn't think about that last one? I thought so! No time to focus on advocacy? Well if you do not care enough to plan how to advocate and promote your program, who will?

Finding the Groove

Last month I wrote about the power of music in the column "What Music Really Means." Through the stories of people more than 30 years removed from school and in careers far removed from music, this diverse group of "regular people" gave voice to the power music has to change lives.

In a related article, back in October of 2006, I wrote about this great new series from HBO called "The Music in Me." This documentary showcased a series of young musicians (12 and under!) who demonstrated their musical ability while also speaking to the important role music played in each of their lives. At the time I wrote:

Don’t Be Silent

Music For All & BOA Unite

Usually this space is reserved for my commentary on the topic of the day. For this issue I want to share with you some exciting news that, I believe, will have a great impact supporting the work you as an educator do everyday:

Bands of America and the Music for All Foundation have announced the merger of the two groups to create Music for All, Inc., one of the largest and most influential national music education organizations in support of active music making. The merger became effective September 14, 2006.

Director/Boosters Relations: Building a Strong Support Network

By Douglas Orzolek

As education enters yet another difficult period of financial and political battles, music educators find themselves preparing their advocacy statements and rallying their troops for the defense of the music program. We all know the importance of these efforts. And, we all know that school boards, principals and decision-makers tend to heed the concerns of parents/taxpayers much quicker than that of the teachers.

Music educators who have developed a strong and sincere relationship with their booster clubs have little or no trouble developing an effective committee to address school boards, principals and decision-makers about the needs and concerns of the music programs. Too often, the music educator spends hours preparing for presentations to decision-makers with little or no help from parents. Usually, these preparations yield no results. The assistance of parents is imperative.

During an open discussion with the members of various booster clubs at a recent music educators' convention, several participants raised questions and sought advice in dealing with their music teachers. The questions and comments were surprising. Concerns were raised about the timely correspondence of teachers with their booster clubs. Others sought suggestions on improving strained relationships with directors who desired many things from the boosters, but rarely participated in their activities and meetings. While one can appreciate that the booster club might find itself low on the priority list of most music educators, we need their help!

Certainly, placing the booster club at the center of the teacher's responsibilities is not at all what music educators should consider. But a reminder about the importance of maintaining a positive and productive relationship with the boosters will certainly enhance the financial, political, and general well being of any music program.

From The Trenches: You Gotta Go Where the Action Is

by Bob Morrison

As I was, literally, sitting at my computer preparing this month's column I received the following e-mail:

Bob,
I really liked your article in SBO entitled "Being Good is no Longer Good Enough." Unfortunately, that is definitely the case. I would go a slightly different direction with your pegging uninformed administrators and school boards as being the heavy in school cuts. Quite often, the administrator and school board have their hands tied by state level cuts and requirements. One thing you do mention is the political world we must engage in. This is true, but I wonder if that political world is at our state house and governor's office more than it is at the local school district's central office. Please consider an article attempting to persuade readers to become active in their state's political environment, especially where educational funding is concerned.

From the Trenches: Celebrate Today… Be Vigilant All Year Long”

Happy Music in Our Schools Month! A great time of year to celebrate and showcase music education and the wondrous benefits music provides to our students. It is also the time of year many groups choose to initiate local advocacy campaigns.

For me, this is an opportunity to look around and contemplate how we have done in our collective efforts to increase music's role in our education system and to examine some of the practical realities that we face while working toward the elusive goal of "Music for Every Child."

First of all, we have much to celebrate: standards for music and arts education have spread through the land, a federal mandate as a core subject, a renewed focus on the role of music and arts education in a NCLB environment.

From The Trenches: Mr. Holland’s Opus: 10 Years Later What Did We Learn?

From the Trenches: We Can Win!

The unimaginable became the unthinkable, the unthinkable became the unlikely, the unlikely became the uncertain, the uncertain became the possible, and now the possible has become reality.

Twenty months after the first report documented the significant decline of music education in California schools, and following an intensive and well coordinated advocacy campaign by music and arts supporters, the state has enacted into law the single largest investment in music and arts education programs in the history of our nation: More than $500 million targeted to reinvigorate K-12 music and arts education programs - and it comes not a moment too soon.

A new report being prepared by the Music for All Foundation shows that student participation in music programs in California has declined by over 600,000 students (56 percent) in the last 6 years. This funding marks the turning point to reverse this trend and build back these programs.