The U.S. Department of Education’s Arts in Education program provides federal support to dance companies and performing arts organizations for the development, evaluation and dissemination of model programs that integrate arts instruction into other subject areas.   Arts in Education programs provide unique funding opportunities for:

Model Development and Dissemination projects that strengthen student learning through standards-based arts education and integration of arts instruction into other subject areas.

Professional Development for Arts Educators grants, identifying innovative models that improve instruction for arts specialists and classroom teachers.

Evaluation and National Dissemination, multiplying the impact of this federal investment. State and local education agencies can adapt these models to provide rigorous arts instruction for all students.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ ongoing national arts education initiatives, and the efforts of VSA arts, to ensure the participation of people with disabilities in arts programming in schools and communities.

Additionally, the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act recognizes the arts as a core academic subject.

What’s At Stake
Advocates should  urge Congress to 1) retain the arts in the definition of core academic subjects of learning 2) reauthorize the Arts in Education Programs through the U.S. Department to Education 3) improve national data collection and research in arts education, and 4) require states to annually report on student access to all core academic subjects.

For more advocacy information on arts education, visit the Performing Arts Alliance.