Stopgap congressional budget resolution cuts $40 million in federal arts education funding

The two-week continuing resolution passed in Congress last week avoided a government shutdown, but part of the additional $4 billion cuts in domestic spending were several federal education programs, including the $40 million Arts in Education (AIE) program. AIE funds more than fifty arts outreach programs throughout the country, among them the Kennedy Center’s arts education efforts and Very Special Arts, the international organization focused on arts and disability. The programs, some of which are funded on two-year cycles, could potentially be shut down prior to the end of the year if a subsequent continuing resolution by Congress doesn’t restore the money. President Obama’s 2011-12 budget has proposed complete elimination of the Arts in Education program. The Department of Education’s new funding guidelines suggests that arts education would receive federal support under a new program, Effective Teaching and Learning for a Well-Rounded Education. Arts education would compete for funding in the new program, along with a wide range of other subjects, including history and geography, foreign languages, physical education, civics and government, health education, and economics.

The federally funded National Endowment for the Arts is also facing a substantial reduction to its budget—the President has asked Congress to reduce the NEA’s budget by 13 percent to $146.25 million, roughly equal to what it was when his predecessor left office. A group of congressional Republicans is expected to call for the elimination of the NEA in the coming months.

The arts advocacy group, Americans for the Arts, is calling on arts education advocates to contact their federal, state, and local officials and urge them to reinstate the Arts in Education programs and to restore NEA funding to 2010 level funding ($167.5 million).