Archives for 2009

In case you haven't heard, New York City is in the midst of a sea of strum and drang related to a June 30th deadline to renew the law that grants the Mayor of the City of New York near absolute control of the New York City public schools.An obituary appeared in the New York Times yesterday for Dr. Thomas Minter. Minter was part of a great battle of a sorts around the ability of … [Read more...] about Mayoral Control of Schools Circa 1983

It's an interesting question, I mean set of questions, don't you think?You see, when we first started protesting about the elimination of dedicated funding for arts education, we were told: "don't worry, there is so much more money coming to the schools every year, Project Arts (the dedicated funding) no longer matters."So, in essence, it was that we shouldn't 't bother to … [Read more...] about Can You Advocate for Funding during Cutbacks? Can you Advocate for Funding during Growth?

Yesterday, the New York City schools chancellor addressed next year's school budget. Today, principals will receive their budgets for next year. 

Even after the stimulus monies, schools are looking at a five percent cut. Those who established reserve funds, which are for a number of obvious reasons are relatively limited in the amount you can save for next year, will probably … [Read more...] about Budget Cuts to New York City Public Schools

As a follow-up to Jane Remer's piece yesterday, as well as the Arts Education Bill of Rights I posted a few weeks ago, here is another piece of the puzzle we're putting together at The Center for Arts Education.It is a campaign to restore dedicated funding for arts education in the New York City public schools. When Jane wrote about Project Arts yesterday, that is the dedicated … [Read more...] about Changing Education Policy: A Campaign and Organizing Tool

We have known for a long time that the second or third class status of the arts as general education in our public schools would probably never change until some powerful people at the national, state and local level are inspired to declare them essential as a matter of policy.  Ultimately, that policy must be expressed and rigorously enforced through legislation that … [Read more...] about Jane Remer’s CliffNotes: In The Absence of Policy, Wave Goodbye to the Arts as Education