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Dear Monmouth College,
During a Crimson
Masque meeting a while back Jeneve West and Doug Rankin delivered
some rather disturbing news to all of the members of Crimson
Masque present at the meeting. While checking up on the status of
the Illinois State operating budget, Professor West discovered
that the State of Illinois wants to cut 7 million dollars from the
Arts Education Budget. Professor West was so upset that she had
all the present members of Crimson Masque call the office of the
President of the Senate to protest the proposed Arts Budget cut.
I just couldn’t believe that the Illinois Senate would cut the
arts budget so severely.
The part of the
Arts Budget cut that upsets me the most is the music side.
Without Arts (and particularly music) funding Illinois will drop
even further in the ranks of education. Music in particular
enriches lives, teaches the value of hard work and dedication, and
promotes understanding and cultural sensitivity. Music can allow
poor rural and urban children access to advanced education through
scholarships.
I found an article,
titled “A History of Music Education Advocacy, written by Michael
L. Mark, who is Professor Emeritus of music at Towson University
in Towson, Maryland. In this article there is a quote from Former
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan stating that “Knowledge is a form
of capital, much of it formed by government investment in
education…Politics has become a process that deliberately seeks to
effect such outcomes as who thinks what and who feels how.”
Here is another
excerpt from Michael L. Marks’ “A History of Music Education
Advocacy.”
“Because many
important developments, curricular and otherwise result from
public policy-laws, government policies, and regulations- advocacy
is indispensable to music education.”
This excerpt rings
a note (no pun intended) of truth. The Illinois State Board of
Education makes all the curricular decisions for the State of
Illinois; so as music educators and music supporters we as
Illinois residents should stick up for music programs without a
second thought. An effective lobby is hard to ignore as with so
many people sounding off it becomes all but impossible not to
listen. If big tobacco, the NRA, agriculture, PETA, and big oil
can have lobbyists why can’t music education?
Sincerely,
Michael T. Young
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