[Dixielandjazz] Funding for the Arts

[Stephen G Barbone]

 From the Cornell University Student Newspaper:  (Excerpted to remove  
most of the political statements contained therein) I hope the  
President elect's interest in the Arts doesn't fall by the wayside  
given the current financial climate. I for one, was unaware of Obama's  
interest in arts education and was pleased to learn about it.

Cheers,

Steve Barbone

www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband



 From The Cornell Daily Sun - Nov 12, 2008 - by Julia Woodward

A slew of unfunded mandates, handed down by the presidential  
administration . . . , has put financial burdens on a lot of public  
high schools that were doing just fine, not so long ago. My own high  
school comes to mind, as budget woes wracked the school my senior  
year .  .  . The first things to suffer? Music and sports. An entire  
music position was cut, and the teachers remaining . . . had to take  
on extra work.

This, as always, is a tricky situation. If you have to cut something,  
do you cut the programs like music and sports, which provide culture,  
creativity and outlets for those gifted in ways other than  
academically? Or do you slash academics, and risk the quality of your  
traditional education and college admissions? (Please note that I  
believe music and sports, and the arts in general, are an integral  
part of a truly quality education).

But, clichéd as it is to say, there is hope. President-elect Barack  
Obama, the first African-American to be elected president, was also  
the first president elected with a national arts policy committee (a  
33-person committee, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and  
the founder of the American Film Institute). In fact, he is the only  
presidential candidate, victorious or not, ever to have created such a  
thing.  .  .  .

Obama’s policy on the arts and art education .  .  . calls for federal  
funding of the arts, programs to assist the arts in schools and an  
overhaul of the No Child Left Behind Act, which has been the main  
culprit for unfunded mandates and, thus, the slashing of the arts in  
schools. His program ideas include the creation of an “Artists Corps,”  
similar to the Teach for America program, which trains young artists  
to work in low-income schools. He has proposed to increase resources  
for the U.S. Department of Education’s arts programs, and plans to  
increase funding to the National Education Association .  .  .and has  
suggested the need for “cultural diplomacy,” using art and artists  
overseas as ambassadors to show the world what America values.

Sounds pretty damn good to me.  .  . And for the arts across the  
country.