{email_subject}

We are in the midst of appropriations season, and there's no better time to advocate for music education! In the coming months, members of Congress will convene to discuss fiscal priorities for the upcoming year, which include the Department of Education's budget. During this time, advocates can have a substantial impact by reaching out to their members of Congress and showing support for programs and legislation impacting music education. The most compelling arguments you can provide to legislators are based on personal experiences within their state. We suggest you include a personal anecdote about how you or your students have benefited from one of these programs. This campaign provides information on federal programs impacting music education and a sample letter for potential advocates to send their members of Congress in support of federal programs impacting music education.

Please take a moment and use this tool to send a message to your representatives today.

The National Association for Music Education, in conjunction with NAMM and several music and arts education partner organizations, conducted an informal national survey collecting information on the use of federal funds to support K-12 music and arts programs. Information collected in the federal funds survey led to the development of the following policy recommendations:

Programs

Title I, Part A—Provides funds, through both school-wide and targeted assistance programs, to school districts to help disadvantaged children achieve proficiency on challenging academic standards and improve the performance of low-achieving schools.

Increase funding for Title I, Part A to $20.5 billion in FY2024.
Direct the U.S. Department of Education to issue guidance to states and districts on the use of Title I funds to support music and the arts.

Title II, Part A—Focuses on improving student academic achievement by bolstering skills and expertise of teachers, principals, and other educators and increasing the number of high-quality teachers and principals in schools.

Increase funding for Title II, Part A to $2.4 billion in FY 2024.
Direct the U.S. Department of Education to issue guidance to states and districts on the use of Title II funds to support music and the arts.

Title IV, Part A—A flexible block grant program which supports activities in three broad areas: (1) providing students with a well-rounded education (e.g., college and career counseling, STEM, arts and music, civics, advanced placement); (2) supporting safe and healthy students (e.g., comprehensive school mental health, drug and violence prevention, health and physical education); and (3) supporting the effective use of technology.

Increase funding for Title IV, Part A to $1.65 billion in FY 2024.

Legislation

Guarantee Access to Arts and Music Education Act- The GAAME Act seeks to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to further specify the eligibility of Title I funds to be used for music and the arts.

Unsubscribe | Manage your subscription | View online

SBO+ Magazine...

Our advertising partners make it possible to produce and send the magazine to you with zero subscription fees.

Producing the magazines, from staffing, to design, production, annual paper and postage increases, is very expensive. Subscribers to the print/digital editions help us underwrite their free subscriptions by receiving emails from our advertisers that we send on their behalf. However, while the cost may be “free,” the “price" is you allow our advertisers to send you news and offers via our in-house email system, newsletters, et cetera.

We don’t sell your information to third parties and never will. We completely understand if you wish to no longer receive the magazine because you don’t want to be contacted with email offers. No hard feelings. No worries. We will honor your wishes to remove your data from our systems and cancel your magazine subscription and remove you from our databases on request. We do not spam. We do not send magazines and emails to people we know don’t want them. That is expensive!

Believe us, we do not want to contact you if you do not want to be contacted. We really don’t. We will cancel your subscription with the next issue and remove your information immediately from our email lists. You may also reply to this email, or manually email us and we will personally make sure you are not on any future contact lists or receiving the magazine.