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Remembering Janet Bookspan
Many people know Martin Bookspan, the long-term host of Live from Lincoln Center on PBS who retired in 2006. For those of you around long enough, you may even know Martin from his tenure at ASCAP. Janet Bookspan was Martin’s wife and I remember her today in this blog because she was one of the…
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Big Thought of Dallas Fights for Arts Budget
With city, county, and state tax rolls down, and expenses rising, we’re probably looking at the scenario of proposed cuts to arts education budget lines. The following email came my way yesterday from Big Thought of Dallas. It’s a great example, from a great organization, of rolling up your sleeves to mobilize constituents against budget cuts to…
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What is “School Choice”?
Based on some comments and emails to yesterday’s blog, I thought it might be helpful to provide a link defining the term “school choice.” It’s from none other than the foundation run by the very father of school choice, the oracle of free market school systems as well as everything else free market: Milton Friedman.…
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Will Arts Education Be Determined by Republicrats?–Part Two
Dagnabbit! Just when you think you did a nice blog on where the two major presidential candidates stand on arts education (and education overall), one of the candidates has to go and unveil a new education platform. Yesterday, in Dayton, Ohio, Barack Obama presented his “A New Vision for 21st Century Education.” Tops on the…
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For Arts Education, they might as well be Republicrats
It’s true, Barack Obama has an education platform that includes arts education, and during the primaries he spoke any number of times about the importance of arts education. That being said, if you want to find his platform for arts education, be prepared to click through any number of times until you get to his…
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The 10 Most Powerful People in K-12 Arts Education
I was inspired by Barry’s Arts Blog and Updates list of the 25 most powerful people in nonprofit arts. So, as we close out one of the quietest weeks of the year, here’s my list for the 10 most powerful people in K-12 arts education: Joel Klein, Chancellor, New York City Department of Education Ramon…
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Parents Beware: Preschool May Cause Harm
So, what is a parent to do? On one hand, you’ve got the New York City Department of Education unveiling standardized tests for kindergarten through second grade students, some of which are as long as 90 minutes. (And if you think you shouldn’t worry as you don’t live in New York City or your child…
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“To Teach Children What it Means to be an American”
It happens every year: summer comes to a close, signaled by The Jerry Lewis Telethon and a return to school. The public school battles will surely continue, and between testing, charter schools, vouchers, small schools, and so many other issues, it’s sometimes easy to lose track of the fundamental reason why there are public schools.…
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People/Organizations You Should Know
Every month or so, I am going to highlight an organization and/or person doing terrific work in arts education. It may be in K-12, or adult education, youth development, or even branch out beyond arts education per se, to another area of education. If you don’t already know Mosaic Youth Theater of Detroit, I am…
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The Educational Industrial Complex
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States and supreme allied commander, introduced the term “Military Industrial Complex,” in his 1961 farewell speech before leaving office. He had wanted to call it the “Military Industrial Congressional Complex,” but decided it was too confrontational. Ike worried that “this conjunction of an immense military establishment and…