ARTS North Carolina is pleased to report that the Joint Select Committee on Arts Education has voted affirmatively on two recommendations included in the Committee’s report. By chance did you hear us shouting out in Murphy?
- The Committee recommends that the State Board of Education shall modify the high school graduation requirements to include one required credit of arts education. Draft legislation can be found on page 12 of the Committee’s report at www.artsnc.org/advocacy.
- The Committee strongly recommends continued funding for the A+ Schools Program, a whole-school reform model that views the arts as fundamental to teaching and learning in all subjects.
Please take a moment to write a personal note of appreciation to the Legislators who served on the Joint Select Committee. Their names and addresses can be found on pages 2&3 of the above referenced report. We will not use electronic communications for this appreciation initiative as we have inundated their computers with messages asking that the Committee adopt the report. We want to especially commend Committee Co-Chairs Representative Becky Carney and Senator Katie Dorsett.
What does this all mean? A Committee of Senators, Representatives, and citizens appointed by Speaker Joe Hackney and President Pro Tem Marc Basnight have studied arts education and its value to public education. They have agreed that arts education must be a statewide priority, and they are recommending legislation that ensures the graduation requirement. Members of the Joint Select Committee will introduce legislation in both the House and Senate when the General Assembly convenes in January, and the legislation will be referred to the appropriate Education Committees where discussion begins anew. The Education Committees of both the Senate and the House will need to adopt the legislation, then the bills move to the full House and Senate. Both the House and the Senate must pass the legislation for it to take effect. ARTS North Carolina, working closely with the five statewide discipline organizations, will coordinate advocacy strategies as the bills begin the long process of becoming a law.
The lunchtime celebration is over and the work begins. The Committee’s report is only the beginning of a long and winding road that will require a spirit of unity, commitment, and belief that will be tested as bills makes their way through the General Assembly. Are we up to the challenges ahead? Yes we are.
Live Expectantly. Be Prepared. Take Action.
ARTS North Carolina
