The document discusses the importance of music and arts education in America. It summarizes the efforts of the Recording Academy and the National Coalition for Music Education to advocate for increased funding and support for music education programs. It notes that Secretary of Education Richard Riley recently signaled a shift in policy by stating the arts are not a luxury but rather offer understanding, and that President Clinton will include competency in the arts as part of education reform legislation. The document argues that access to music and arts education improves students' academic performance and engagement with school.

1. CHARTING
AMERICA'S ARTS
AGENDA
Today' s victories signal
tomorrow's challenges
BY MICHAEL GREENE
President, The Recordi nq Academy
As amazing as it may seem, this month marks my
fifth year as President of the Recording Acad-emy.
These years have been a marvelous blur of
professional grow1:h and extreme personal
satisfaction.
In the late '80s, we devoted ourselves to setting a new
course for the Academy. One of the hopes we all em-braced
was that NARAS would become the respected
voice of creative and technical music professionals and
that our agenda would become increasingly relevant and
interactive, responding to the changing face of America's
dynamic cultural environment.
From this very optimistic and fertile soil grew pro-grams
such as MusiCares, Grammv In The Schools, The
Grammy High School Jazz Bands, Archive & Preservation
programs and the ational Coalition for Music Educa-tion,
just to name a few.
Identifying the needs which exist in our industry, and
responding to these needs, has become the hallmark of
our national organization. Early in the process, the T rust-ees
and I were surrounded on all sides by a most frighten-ing
cultural nightmare - the demise of music and arts
education in American schools, and the inescapable real-
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ity that this demise was a major systemic disease which
threatened the very root system of America's musical
future.
This posed an important question: Was NARAS to
serve as an instrument to merely rally the arts community
and industry to action? Or should we become a proactive
investigative agency to develop the case, compile the data,
and chart the course of action?
There was no question that the answer was all of the
above.
NARAS, NALV1M& MENC came together in an un-precedented
union to lead the charge. Many battles have
been won, but the war to return music education to the
lives of our children remains volatile and the ultimate
victory is still very much in question.
I am most pleased to report that
the activities of the National Coali-tion
for Music Education have led to
a fundamental shift in attitudes and
national policy. If you will recall, 14
months ago the Academy brought to
the world's attention the omission of
the arts and music in the goals of the
America 2000 education initiative.
And once again, on this past Grammy
Awards presentation we used our fo-rum
to remind the world of the im-portance
of the arts in the effort to
heal our society and reinstill hope in
the lives of children.
Less than one month later, Secre-tary
of Education Richard Riley made
an important speech before the March meeting of the
American Council for the Arts which signaled a funda-mental
shift in federal policy. At that time he stated: "We
have plenty of information but sometimes not much
wisdom. '0/ e need the arts as a path to understanding."
For those who have worked long and hard to return
music and arts education to America's public schools,
those words came as both a tremendous victory and cause
for renewed commitment. This statement was accompa-nied
by the promise that President Clinton will make
competency in the arts an integral part of his education
reform legislation package.
Citing the Harris Poll which shows 9 out of 10
Americans think arts education should be a required part
of the school curriculum, Riley's comments suggest an
important change in how the arts are being prioritized on
a national level. "Some argue that the arts are a luxury for
our schools," he continued. "They say that in a time of
fiscal crisis and budgetary restraint that arts programs are
expendable. I think it is a grave mistake to rob our children
of the experience of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, acting
in 'The Importance of Being Earnest,' or spending an
afternoon discussing an African-American or Hispanic art

2. exhibit at a local art museum." While other subjects
provide data, Riley said, the arts offer understanding.
Gathering at the Shrine Auditorium to celebrate the
35th Grammy Awards, only blocks away from the site of
last year's riots, I was struck by the profound connections
between the music we celebrate and the society that fills
us with both wonder and dismay. Music speaks to our
hopes and dreams, and it can also uncover the inequities
and injustices in the world, when given an unencumbered
opportunity to do so. Music can serve as both an impor-tant
pressure release and a marvelous healing force for our
society.
It's been estimated that, nation-wide, more than
300,000 kids will drop out this year. Yet when given the
opportunity to study the arts, they stay in school. Children
who are given access to music education also do consid-erably
better in both science and mathematics.
The fact is that, by making music and the arts curricu-lum
requirements, a number of pioneering schools have
turned the tide on falling grades and rising apathy. Take,
for example, rural Starkville, Mississippi, where required
courses in music appreciation, art history, creative writing
and drama are giving students not only higher learning
skills, but also self-esteem.
Or look at St. Augustine School of the Arts, a Catholic
grade school in one of the poorest areas of the South
Bronx. In 1985, enrollment was so low that the school was
about to close. But desperate circumstances called for
desperate action, so the school decided to make music and
art as important a part of their curriculum as reading and
math. And, 10 and behold, not only has enrollment tripled,
but reading and math scores have improved dramatically.
The improvements shown by students at Starkville
and St. Augustine are beginning to show up elsewhere, in
the most rural and most urban environments, wherever
music and the arts are made available. Researchers have
shown statistically significant relationships between mu-sic
instruction and positive performance in everything
from spelling and reading comprehension to mathemat-ics,
motor skills and learning ability. In fact, students who
take music courses score an average of 20-40 points
higher on both verbal and math portions of the SATs than
students who don't take arts courses.
So why is it that, in Los Angeles county, 99 percent of
all students do not receive a comprehensive K-12 music
education program. Why, on a federal level, does arts
education receive about 3.5 percent of the funding that
science education receives? Is there no limit to the degree
to which music and arts education can be devalued?
When all of our children - black and white, rich and
poor - are shown the beautiful tapestry of the roots of
American music, they are handed the keys to America's
cultural heritage. They take pride in the amazing contri-butions
of their forefathers and mothers. And that pride
instills hope, and that is what the Recording Academy's
work is all about.
For the last 15 years, while simultaneously gutting
music, art, dance and creative writing from the curricu-lum
of America's schools, our government has been doing
next to nothing for the arts within our society at large. One
need only look at our arts spending policy to see just how
quickly America is becoming a cultural wasteland. The
Japanese government spends almost $5 per person on
arts. Germany spends about half of that, and Canada and
Great Britain about $1.20 each. And where is the United
States in this survey-what are the arts worth to all of us?
Fifteen cents. One nickel and one dime.
Given this climate, I cannot claim to have been
entirely optimistic when I concluded these televised com-ments
by calling upon the Clinton Administration to
propose an arts policy that will redeploy resources and
insure that the arts become mandatory core curriculum
for graduation. Yet Secretary Riley's promise is a truly
Significant step in that direction.
Likewise, we can be proud of the fact that the National
Coalition for Music Education continues to make great
strides. Thanks to Coalition efforts, a two year program
developing voluntary "World Class" standards for music
and arts education is well underway, and in March the
Coalition sponsored a "National Celebration of American
School Music" to focus attention on the importance of
these standards. Secretary Riley was there, and he heard
the message loud and clear.
Recognizing the need for these standards does not
mean resorting to an outdated, monochromatic, cookie-cutter
approach to teaching the arts. We must continue to
emphasize the importance of cultural diversity, to teach
improvisational skills right alongside sight-reading, and to
empower individual music teachers to employ innovative
instructional approaches. At the same time, the standards
we're developing integrate these priorities into a vision of
excellence which should facilitate the resurrection and
full funding of music education programs across the
country.
Today, we find ourselves at a very important cross-roads.
The window of opportunity to affect meaningful
change - to make music and arts education an integral
part of every child's education and to preserve the free
exchange and exhibition of artistic ideas - is beginning
to open for the first time in years. But it won't stay open
long if we don't all pull in the same direction. The Harris
poll backs up our belief that the American people are in
tune with the current climate in Washington: It's time for
decisive change!
As parents, educators, artists and musicians, we must
make our voices heard in order to return the arts to
children's lives. "Human progress is neither automatic
nor inevitable," warned Martin Luther King. "This is no
time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous
positive action." 9
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