Alabama is working to increase arts education availability in the state’s public schools through grants from groups including the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the Alabama Arts Alliance. Motorists can even buy license tags for their cars with a portion of the purchase going to school arts programs. Despite these avenues of funding, Alabama’s music educators still face challenges.
Music education has been shown to have a multitude of benefits, including encouraging student attendance and engagement.
Groups like the Alabama Music Educators Association (AMEA) work to advocate for music education funding by emphasizing the benefits of these programs to their communities and to the local, state and federal governments.
“[Music education] just makes for better Americans. Can you imagine being in the car for hours and hours and not having any music to soothe you or touch you?” said Phil Wilson, president of AMEA.
According to Wilson, the association has found that children in school districts where music is offered at the elementary, middle and high school level tend to perform better in school. AMEA’s goal is for every child in Alabama public schools to have access to music education at each level of their education, but unfortunately, that isn’t the case today, especially in rural school districts.
In the Daleville City Schools, Mark Nichols serves as director of bands and teaches instrumental and vocal music for grades six through 12. He has spent his entire career teaching in rural areas, seeing it as an opportunity “to be part of a community and to give back.”
As funding for music education can be highly dependent on the local school district, less affluent counties may struggle to fund these programs. For those wanting to show support for a local public school’s music program, Nichols has advice.
“The most, easiest thing for someone to do in the public, in the public is to attend the concert or the football game and go and watch the band,” said Nichols. “That is the easiest and simplest thing for someone to do is when they hear about a concert that their local high school or middle school was putting on just to go and to go and and be an active participant in the concert. That is the number one thing.”
Additionally, he recommends donating money, instruments or other supplies, as the high cost of musical instruments and supplies can often be a barrier-to-entry for students.
Although funding can vary between school districts, decisions made in the federal government still impact the available funding for music education.
Amanda Karhuse, the Assistant Executive Director for Advocacy and Public Policy at the National Association for Music Education, said one of the biggest challenges facing music education is recent federal budget proposals.
“We have seen some budget proposals come out that would really impact funding for public education overall, and certainly that's going to have an impact on music and arts education, because states and districts are going to have to find other funding sources to cover some of those costs,” said Karhuse.
Karhuse recommends people contact their Congress members to advocate for the importance of a well rounded education, which “in federal law, is defined to include music and the other arts disciplines.”
Whether it’s calling a legislator, donating an old instrument, or attending a concert, there are a variety of ways for Alabamians to support public music education.