Current MENC Government Relations Strategy and Specifics Breakdown
View MENC’s government relations and advocacy agenda. This “living” document details MENC’s plan for achieving policy and legislative goals on behalf of music education, and offers a brief synopsis of our most up-to-date government relations and advocacy action plan. View the agenda here.
Additionally, reference the collaboratively developed “Strengthen Arts Education in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act: Legislative Recommendations” document for a more specific breakdown of MENC’s joint legislative efforts in conjunction with our arts in education community partners.
Federal News
Congressional Budget Resolution Passes House and Senate—Includes $20 Billion More in Funds Than President’s Proposal
This month, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed separate versions of the FY 2009 Congressional budget resolution. The two variations of the resolution differed slightly in the total amounts of discretionary funding that they would allow for, and in the overall funds that they would provide for the U.S. Department of Education in the new fiscal year. Both takes on the resolution, however, diverge strongly from President Bush’s proposal of significant education program cuts.
In essence, a Congressional budget resolution is drafted in order to enact limits on the spending and tax legislation that Congress will then proceed to consider over the remainder of any given fiscal year. Such legislation is considered to be largely superficial and has not yet been met with presidential approval—only the total amount of discretionary spending dictated in the final budget resolution is binding on the House and Senate appropriations committees.
Congressional budget resolutions can, however, provide appropriations committee chairpersons with useful roadmaps as to how best to divvy up financial resources among multiple federal departments and agencies, each eager for their own share of the pot, and often become useful predicting indicators as to the upcoming funding allowances that will be allocated in various annual appropriations bills.
The House version of the Congressional budget resolution was passed on March 13 by a vote of 212–207. The resolution contains an increase in funding that would provide $7.1 billion for education, job training, and various other programs. The House version would set an overall discretionary spending limit of $1.014 trillion, $25.4 billion more than President Bush’s recommendation of $987.6 billion.
On March 14, the Senate passed its own budget resolution by a vote of 51–44. The Senate’s version of the resolution would allocate an $8.8 billion increase over the president’s proposed budget for education and job training. Even more importantly, the U.S. Department of Education would receive $5.4 billion in additional funds over the amount dictated by President Bush. Overall, the Senate would increase spending by $21.8 billion.
The next step in the process will occur in early April, when members from both chambers will meet in a House-Senate conference in order to attempt to bridge the spending divides between the two pieces of legislation. If Congress were to ultimately agree on a Congressional budget resolution that included funding far exceeding that of the president’s requested budgetary allocations, a long and complicated ordeal could ensue with the very real possibility of no appropriations bills being passed until the election of a new administration becoming the unfortunate result.
Recent Arts in Education News Clippings:
· Forum: Education is the future of classical music
· More art, music, P.E. classes approved by school board
· Rhee’s ’09 Budget Adds $44 Million
· Schools must work to avoid more music cuts
· Isle schools will offer new ‘super diploma’
· Why the Arts Deserve Center Stage
· Parents say arts education a key voting factor
· The arts of the campaign trail
· Study Reveals Teens’ Strong Commitment To Music And Music Making
No Child Left Behind
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings Introduces No Child Left Behind (NCLB) “Differentiated Accountability” Pilot Program to Assembled Crowd in St. Paul, Minnesota
On March 18, at an event in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced a new pilot program under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) designed to help states differentiate between underperforming schools in need of dramatic interventions and schools that are closer to meeting the performance goals of the legislation.
Secretary Spellings officially announced “Differentiated Accountability: A More Nuanced System to Better Target Resources” to an audience of education community members and was joined for her speech by Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, United States Senator Norm Coleman (MN) and Gene Wilhoit, executive director, Council of Chief State School Officers.
During her address, the secretary outlined the various types of interventions that states could provide. Amongst those described included proposals to send the most experienced and proven teachers to work in the lowest-performing schools and rewarding them based on performance, shuttering some of the weakest schools altogether and partnering with the nonprofit and private sectors to develop new avenues for improving education.
Secretary Spellings identified that the pilot program will initially be implemented in up to ten separate states. Eligibility will be contingent upon whether or not states have already approved assessment systems in place to measure student achievement, the agreement of state education leaders to publish timely, transparent information about educational progress and challenges and a commitment by the states to building capacity for reform while working to improve low-performing schools.
For more information on the U.S Department of Education’s new “Differentiated Accountability: A More Nuanced System to Better Target Resources,” pilot program, please click here.
Recent NCLB News Clippings:
· Bucking Trends: Expanding the Arts
· Coloring Outside Curriculum Lines To Depict the Drop in Arts Education
You Should Know …
… the Pryor-Kennedy Amendment to the FY 2009 Congressional Budget Resolution passed the Senate unanimously!
Recently, the United States Senate reached unanimous agreement in passing an amendment to the Congressional budget resolution offered by Senators Mark Pryor (AR) and Edward M. Kennedy (MA) to create a reserve fund to assist with improving middle and high schools across America while helping to prevent dropouts.
Many middle and high schools do not have the resources necessary to reduce dropout rates and fully prepare students for college and the workplace. If the new language ultimately becomes the law of the land, the Pryor-Kennedy amendment would make room for the funding of legislation developed by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions to support programs to improve student achievement and graduation among secondary school students.
In recent months, MENC has proudly reported the correlation between strong music education programs and higher attendance/graduation rates through the results of several Harris Polls. Earlier in March, an alert was sent out to all MENC Legislative Memo subscribers asking them to contact their members of Congress citing the important data gleaned from these surveys as a means of attracting attention to the value of keeping music education in our schools while also offering lawmakers a valuable tool for supporting the Pryor-Kennedy Amendment. MENC would like to thank everyone who contacted their Senators and asked them to vote in favor of the legislation. Our success in this instance proves the incredible impact that grassroots advocacy can have on decision makers in Washington, DC.
… Public School Test Records and Grammy Award-winning musician Tom Chapin have launched the distribution of a music education awareness song and video!
Public School Test Records and Tom Chapin, lead singer of the band Keane, recently launched the nationwide distribution of the “Not on the Test” song and video to raise awareness about the importance of music education in our schools and express concern about what is currently missing from American public education. “Not on the Test,” developed with music and lyrics by Chapin and his long-time collaborator John Forster, and produced by PST Records, is available for download free of charge at www.notonthetest.com.
Congressional Corner
Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Lamar Alexander was elected to the United States Senate in 2002, winning the open seat of then-retiring Senator and now former presidential candidate Fred Thompson. Senator Alexander, who is the third-ranking Senate Republican leader and serves as the Chairman of the Republican Conference, is currently running for re-election. In addition to his work with the Republican Conference, Senator Alexander also serves on the Committee on Appropriations, the Committee on Environment and Public Works, the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the Committee on Rules and Administration.
In his long and illustrious career of public service Senator Alexander has been a two-term Governor of Tennessee, U.S. Secretary of Education under President George H.W. Bush and has served as president of the University of Tennessee. Senator Alexander is a classical and country pianist and the author of seven books, including Six Months Off, the story of his family's life in Australia after he was elected governor
Senator Lamar Alexander on the value of music education:
“Music education is important. I had some great teachers, but Miss Lennis Tedford, my piano teacher, was the best. From age five until my high school senior recital, I spent thirty minutes with her each week. “Don’t play that monkey business,” she would say, as she could always tell when I’d been playing too much Jerry lee Lewis. From Miss Tedford I learned more than music. She taught me the discipline of Czerny and the metronome, the logic of Bach, the clean joy of Mozart. She encouraged me to let my emotions run with Chopin and Rachmaninoff. She made sure I was ready for the annual piano competition, and that I performed completely under control. I still thank her for the discipline and love of music she gave me each time I sit at the piano today.”