Sometimes Along the Way, We Get Lucky

My thanks to Terry Lowe, Christian Wissmuller, and the Timeless Communications team for the opportunity to pen this article for MMR and its sister music education publications. My gratitude also to this team for honoring me with the Don Johnson Service Award this past January; an award that will forever make me feel both humbled and inspired. I hope this article – and all that follow – will continue to be of service to music education and the music industry.

My column will be devoted to two essential topics: 1) music education and the policy environments that impact music education access and opportunity; and 2) advocacy tactics and ideas that are or can be deployed to press in on policy and create needed changes that expand access. NAMM’s advocacy efforts seek to assure that every child has the opportunity to learn and grow with music and that it is available to every child in school. Federal, state, and local policies must support this opportunity. Starting with this article, and along the way, I will share updates – and sometimes opinions – about policy and advocacy activities around the country.

As these topics unfold and develop, I hope readers will engage in these topics and also share their advocacy challenges, opportunities and successes via the magazine’s social media (@mmrmagazine on Twitter) or the NAMM Foundation’s and SupportMusic Coalition’s Facebook pages. And you can follow updates from me on Twitter @MaryLNAMM.

For starters, let me share what was a really good advocacy moment that took place in Washington, D.C. in the House and Senate office buildings. It’s an example of relentlessly positive music education advocacy in motion; doing something to make sure that music education is celebrated and promoting the value and importance of music education. Sometimes along the way, we get lucky and that’s what happened on April 7.

Quick background: as many readers may know, the Best Communities for Music Education is a core program of the NAMM Foundation. Through a national survey, districts and schools are awarded the designation that recognizes support for music education as demonstrated through time in the curriculum for instruction, funding for materials and equipment and having certified, high quality teachers. This March, the NAMM Foundation awarded 508 districts and schools with the Best Community for Music Education Award and SupportMusic Merit Award, respectively. Local communities celebrate this award at spring concerts, school board meetings and other community events and many NAMM members are on hand to share in these celebrations. In past years, NAMM also shared this good news with Members of the US Congress through email outreach. But this year because a new Congress (the 114^th) is in place, and there was the potential for the re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to be developed and debated, we decided to take this good news directly to every relevant member of Congress – those that had awarded schools or districts.

So on April 7, armed with 161 meticulously prepared information packets with school contacts, names, addresses cross referenced to each Member of Congress (and organized so you could essentially walk door to door!), NAMM staffer Luis Murguia and NAMM member Myrna Sislen of Middle C Music in Washington, D.C., went to Capitol Hill. They started each meeting with, “I have some great news about schools in your district” and then shared news of districts and schools and their Best Community for Music Education or SupportMusic Merit Award designations. They encouraged Members of Congress to send congratulatory letters, or outreach to communities via their social media pages – and to date, many have. Most importantly, these Members and Congress learned that their communities – their constituencies – were being celebrated for music education and that music education was important to folks back home. NAMM also informed state governors of the designations in their states, but by email and mail contact!

On the same day, April 7, the Senate HELP committee released a bi-partisan draft of the ESEA re-authorization and music was included as a core academic subject. NAMM and its advocacy partners have been working on this for years and many NAMM Members who have been on Advocacy Fly-ins have helped carry this message. With the new Congress, and since January, several NAMM members have also reached out to Senate HELP committee members to assure that core academic subjects were included in the bill, music and the arts among them.  By the end of April, a Senate ESEA Re-authorization bill had passed through the Senate HELP Committee and is headed to the Senate floor for debate and consideration for passage but this is an important step! We await action from the House. It’s not quite time for a victory lap, as the ESEA re-authorization process has a way to go – for updates, visit ESEA tracker at: www.namm.org/public-affairs/articles/track-esea-reauthorization-bill

There is no causative link between the two efforts above. Rather, they are examples of advocacy for music education and all the children we want to experience its many benefits. As champions of this idea, we worked on April 7 and all the many years and months before as we pushed in on ESEA re-authorization because we want every child to have the chance to learn and grow with music.