The Dana Foundation’s Arts, Learning, and the Brain conference proceedings highlight both neurological and psychological reasons for inclusion of arts education in urban school curriculum. An excerpt from Jerome Kagan’s prepared remarks to the conference on the Dana Foundation site: “The first advantage is that it boosts the self confidence among the children who are behind in mastery of reading and arithmetic… (C)hildren live in an economy where a high school diploma is absolutely necessary and a college degree advantageous for successful adaptation to our technological economy. This was not the case a century or two earlier. Neither Benjamin Franklin nor Abraham Lincoln had more than two years of formal schooling. If we eliminate the estimated 5 to 8 percent of American children who have a serious compromise in their cognitive abilities, due either to genes, or damage to their brain before or during the birth process, a postnatal infection, or a pregnant mother who abused alcohol or drugs, the remaining 92 to 95 percent are psychologically able to obtain both degrees. Therefore, we have to ask why the high school dropout rate is excessively high among youth from poor and working class families, and why the average scores of all American youth on tests of academic skills are below those of many other developed nations. An important reason for this sad state of affairs is that children, like adults, are vulnerable to becoming discouraged when they sense that a goal they desire is probably unattainable.” Read his entire piece here.

Peggy Amsterdam’s editorial published in the Philadelphia Enquirer December 23rd, 2009, excerpted below, explains why it makes sense to include arts funding in federal and local stimulus/jobs programs. “Sens. John McCain and Tom Coburn recently criticized how some of the federal stimulus money has been spent. They took specific aim at several National Endowment for the Arts grants for arts employment across the country, highlighting two Philadelphia-based groups, Pig Iron Theatre Co. and Spiral Q Puppet Theater. The $25,000 grant for Spiral Q supported a portion of the salary of the organization’s production manager. The $25,000 grant for Pig Iron allowed it to retain the position of associate artistic director and to fund actors’ salaries for its world-premiere production of Welcome to Yuba City. Were the grants worth it? Well, Welcome to Yuba City played to sold-out crowds and received uniformly outstanding reviews. The Northern Liberties neighborhood, where the show took place, was bustling with activity, including collateral spending at restaurants by the thousands of people who attended. Meanwhile, Spiral Q’s grant supported a position responsible for teacher training, internships, neighborhood parades, and other educational programs. Tracy Broyles, Spiral Q’s executive director, said that without the grant, the theater would have had to lay off its production manager and reduce arts-education programming by 50 percent – at a time when there is increasing demand for educational resources from teachers, principals, and community groups serving children in low-income neighborhoods.” To see the whole piece, click here.

The Post Star Editorial board has come out in favor of earmark reform in a piece published January 29th, 2010. See the whole article here, and an excerpt here: “Earmarks are those special pet projects that congressmen and senators add to bills. Often, they’re for local projects in the congressman’s district. But they’ve also been used to award big contributors for their donations and for powerful interests to buy influence in Congress. In the 2009 federal budget, there were 11,234 earmarks, which added $14.8 billion of often wasteful spending to the federal budget. That’s a tiny percentage in actual dollars of the total federal budget. But it’s not inconsequential in terms of its impact on the behavior of our federal representatives. Knowing the nature and amount of these earmarks is important for citizens to know who might be influencing their representatives in Congress. A single, searchable database to track earmarks would not only allow citizens to view individual requests, but to observe trends and common sources of influence. While the president’s message was meant for Congress, it should also heard on the state level. Member items are often hidden throughout the state budget or kept secret in a similar manner. Yet many state lawmakers, including our own, fail to post their member item requests online. If Sen. Gillibrand and Rep. Murphy can post their earmark requests online, then state Sens. Betty Little and Roy McDonald and Assembly members Teresa Sayward and Tony Jordan can post their member item requests. It’s vitally important that the citizens know who is influencing our representatives and how those representatives are spending our tax money. Making it easier for citizens to access information will go a long way toward that end.”

In his article for Miller-McCune on January 7th, 2010 titled, Arts Education Promotes Emotional Intelligence, Tom Jacobs reported on recently released scholarly papers from Arts Education Policy Review. Excerpts: “As arts education is pushed further to the margins by the emphasis on standardized testing, a tool for nurturing children’s social and emotional development is being lost. Arts education, which tends to be something of an afterthought in many American school districts, is facing an even tougher time than usual. Twin threats — budget cuts necessitated by dwindling tax revenues and the push to focus on math and reading skills as measured on standardized tests — have left music and art classes in a particularly vulnerable state. In December, for example, the Los Angeles Unified School District proposed eliminating its 350 elementary school arts specialists over the next two years.” Tina Beveridge notes, “If we marginalize all non-tested subjects, we create a system in which only the affluent members of our society have access to the most comprehensive and well-rounded educations, which widens the achievement gap rather than closes it.” See the entire article here.