Members of the Tennessee Delegation at the U.S. Capitol Building

TMEA was well-represented at the 2017 National Association for Music Education Hill Day. The Tennessee delegation included six members of the TMEA board, four C-NAfME members, and NAfME Southern Division President-Elect Dian Eddleman.

We participated with the combined NAfME delegation in the morning rally (see NAfME's video here). We then visited Senator Lamar Alexander and Senator Bob Corker's offices, and met with staffers in the offices of Representatives Phil Roe, Jim Cooper, and Steve Cohen, as well as with Rep. Cohen himself. Each office received materials outlining NAfME's policy priorities, recent TMEA publications, and a set of letters prepared by the C-NAfME representatives from constituents detailing the impact music education has had in their lives.

The focus of the advocacy work for Hill Day was on encouraging full authorized funding for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in the fiscal year 2018 budget. ESSA was passed in late 2015 with broad bipartisan support and was intended to allow states and districts to have much greater control over the usage of federal education dollars. Among the asks were $1.6 billion for Title IV, Part A, which is designed to be a formula-based block grant that provides funding for well-rounded educational initiatives, school safety, and technology. At last year's $400 million level of funding, many states reverted to using the funds through competitive grants, meaning many districts will not have access to this support. The president's proposed budget did not include any funding for Title IV, Part A. The level recommended by the House Appropriations Committee this week is $500 million. Another ask was for funding for Title II, Part A, at the originally authorized amount of $2.3 billion, to support professional development. The president's budget and the recent recommendations of the House Appropriations Committee would not provide any funding in this area.

Our delegation was encouraged by the positive reception we received from each of the staffers we met with and the general consensus regarding the bipartisan values reflected in ESSA. TMEA will continue to monitor the budgetary process and follow up on the work of Hill Day throughout the coming year.

At their July 3 meeting, the Bledsoe County School Board unanimously voted to reinstate the district's band program. In May, the board had decided to cut the band program for budgetary reasons. After considerable public response, the program had been partially reestablished as an after school group in June, but continued public feedback persuaded the board to fully restore the program.

TMEA thanks the school board for choosing to support access to music education and for their responsiveness to the feedback they received following the initial decision.

As part of TMEA's advocacy efforts in support of access to high quality music education for all Tennessee students, the following letter was sent to each of the Bledsoe County board members in May:

Members of the Bledsoe County Board of Education:
 
The Tennessee Music Education Association strongly encourages that you reconsider your recent decision to dramatically reduce your district’s music programs, eliminating the high school band and all middle school general music offerings. While we acknowledge that financial constraints often lead to difficult budgetary decisions, this course of action will negatively impact the educational experiences of the children of your community and runs counter to the Bledsoe County School District Goals, the breadth of a well-rounded education outlined by the Tennessee Academic Standards, and the Tennessee Code.
 
The Bledsoe County School District Goals include “to provide offerings which explore a wide range of career and service opportunities,” “to promote an integration of academic, physical, social and emotional growth experiences for each student,” “to ensure that each student’s interests, capacities and objectives are considered in his/her learning program,” and “to help students gain understanding of themselves, as well as skills and techniques in living and working with others and being responsible citizens.” A comprehensive K-12 music education program is essential to achieving each of those goals. Without curricular music offerings at the middle school level and instrumental music at the high school level, the ability of many students to pursue their interests and develop their full capacities will be greatly curtailed. General music at the middle school level can be a crucial part of helping students express themselves, integrating academic knowledge with social and emotional development. Participating in large ensembles likewise helps students to develop important collaborative and leadership skills in addition to continuing their growth through musical expression.  Additionally, recent research has shown that students who participate in music programs graduate at higher rates, attend school more regularly, and have fewer disciplinary issues than their peers.

As part of the comprehensive curriculum provided for by Tennessee’s Academic Standards, there are standards aligned to musical development in general music, instrumental music, and vocal music for grades 6-8 and high school. Without faculty and coursework in place to meet these standards, Bledsoe County students will be academically disadvantaged relative to their peers across the state. It is also notable that state law dictates that “the course of instruction in all public schools for kindergarten through grade eight (K-8) shall include art and music education to help each student foster creative thinking, spatial learning, discipline, craftsmanship and the intrinsic rewards of hard work” and “local boards of education are encouraged to fully implement the art and music standards adopted by the board of education through both art and music classes” (TN Code Section 49-6-1025). Eliminating middle school music course offerings is not in keeping with this statute.
 
Thank you for your consideration of these points. It is our hope that solutions can be found that provide every student in Bledsoe County with access to curricular music education opportunities provided by licensed teachers.
 
Sincerely,
 
The Executive Board of the Tennessee Music Education Association