The president’s budget no longer contains arts education as a discrete item, as has been the practice for a number of years. Instead, presumably, arts education is rolled into total USDOE spending–the budget specifics to be determined administratively at the USDOE.
For some, it’s a non-issue: this is the way the National Endowment for the Arts has gone about it for years. For others, it’s a giant issue, on the symbolic level as well as the practical. It is feared that if arts education doesn’t have a line item in the federal budget, then it is given less recognition. More importantly, if it is no longer a line item, it may just disappear entirely, if not today, tomorrow.
Then again, there are those who believe that its a way of protecting arts education within the overall budget of the USDOE, for it no longer has to be reauthorized on a regular basis. As long as the administration at the USDOE is supportive, arts education can be protected from the political winds.
For most arts advocates, there’s not a hell of a lot to fight for on the federal level, except NEA and USDOE funding. There’s the occasional policy issue such as artist visas, white space, etc., but most of what is known as federal advocacy focuses mainly on the NEA and USDOE/Arts Education.
In my book, I think it’s worth advocating for the arts education line item. Even though it places the line item in a precarious position on an annual basis, it serves as one of the few organizing principles for advocacy on a national/federal basis.
The less there is to work on, to organize around, the weaker the field becomes. What I would urge all of us to consider, is the question of how this organizing principle becomes a starting point, rather than the sum total.
And of course, it would be great to hear some more specifics about this from the administration. As soon as I gather something new, I will shoot it out via Dewey21C.
