Some National Advocacy News

Louisiana Adds Music/Arts Mandate - Massachusetts goes the other way

Governor Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana just signed into law Act 175 mandating the visual and performing arts for all schools. Full implementation of the law is scheduled for the 2010/2011 school year and will require all students to have music and the arts as a part of their basic education. The Louisiana law was largely based on the Arkansas legislation that mandated music and art instruction for all children starting with the 2005/2006 school year. Louisiana is now the first state to replicate the Arkansas legislation. Music for All worked closely with Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee along with music and arts advocates to pass the model legislation.

In Massachusetts, arts advocates are pushing the state Department of Education to make arts education a bigger part of recommended high school graduation requirements, which list music, art and related subjects as electives. The recommendations, which the state Board of Education plans to vote on this fall, include four credits each of English and math, three credits each of history and a lab-based science, two credits in the same foreign language and six credits in a chosen elective. Electives may include visual and performing arts, career and technical education, technology or additional courses in other academic subjects. Advocates would like to see students required to take at least one credit of art.

Source: Music for All