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NYC Arts in Education Roundtable

BP Reynoso, NYC Teachers Call On City to Protect Students’ Access to Arts Education Amid Worsening Teacher Shortage

6 minutes

Group demands city lawmakers uphold commitment to put a certified arts teacher in every school, restore looming cuts that would end critical programming for students

Nearly 20% of city public schools no longer have a certified arts teacher; proposed budget would leave thousands more students without arts education

BROOKLYN, NY — Today, in recognition of Teacher Appreciation Week, the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable joined with the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Music Educators Association of New York City (MEANYC), teachers, students and advocates to urge city lawmakers to prioritize funding for arts teachers in this year’s city budget. Teachers at the event shared an open letter signed by more than 215 public school teachers that called on city officials to include $38 million in their budget to ensure every school has at least one certified arts teacher. 

Read the letter here and attached.

Watch a recording of the event here.

“The arts are essential to children’s education. Dance, music, visual arts, media, literary arts, and theater all have the power to change students’ lives while opening new doors for them to succeed in and out of the classroom. But today, most public school students do not have sufficient access to the arts — and a dramatic decline in arts teachers is making it harder for schools to provide students with the holistic education they need. Today, we’re calling on city lawmakers to do more to address the looming arts education crisis and provide funding to ensure that every student has access to the arts — because it starts with the arts,” said Kim Olsen, Executive Director of the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable. 

“The arts are essential, and our education system should reflect that. Art is a powerful tool that can be used to share information, advocate for what is right, grow a business, or express who we are and what we feel. It’s critical that our students grow up with access to these essential skills, and that’s impossible without a robust arts education system that includes teachers of the arts in every school. I’m grateful to the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable for uniting New Yorkers in this fight, and I look forward to standing together in the effort to make arts accessible in New York City schools,” said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

“The arts are essential to the world we experience every day. It’s in the arts that we learn to be our best selves and if we’re really lucky, make the world a bit brighter for those we create art with and for. And it is in creative arts spaces that educators can reach our youth and help them learn to move through this world. That’s why we need more support for the arts. We’re grateful to the city for agreeing to restore $41 million in funding this next fiscal year, and we urge lawmakers to ensure this funding remains protected in perpetuity. The city must also do more to guarantee creative spaces for our students to experience and learn about the world around them — and that starts with ensuring every student has access to an arts teacher,” said Frankie Dascola, Government Relations Chair for the Music Educators Association of NYC (MEANYC), Director at I.S. 93 – Ridgewood, and Head of Operations at Big Apple Leadership Academy for the Arts. 

Between 2020 and 2023, public schools across the city lost 425 full-time certified arts teachers — that means roughly 1 in 7 school children do not have a full time arts teacher. Currently, 307 NYC public schools (more than 19% of the city’s public schools) lack a single certified arts teacher. Without adequate funding in this year’s budget, thousands more students will lose access to arts opportunities in their school. 

In addition to the $38 million to ensure every student has access to a certified arts teacher, the letter called on city lawmakers to restore up to $41 million in expiring, COVID-era arts education funding that supports critical programming at every New York City public school.The Adams Administration included funding for the restorations in the Mayor’s executive budget last week.

Background

Before the pandemic, a majority of schools reported that funding for the arts was insufficient to give all students a basic foundation in arts education. After four years of COVID, the imperative to provide all students with a sound arts education has only increased. Engagement in the arts can get students struggling to thrive socially, emotionally, and academically back on track. Research shows that arts education improves student performance, mental health and the overall chances of success later in life. 

In March, the New York City Arts in Education Roundtable joined with actors, students and educators to launch “It Starts with the Arts,” a campaign urging the Mayor and City Council to save expiring arts education funding from COVID-era funding and for greater transparency between how the city schools are spending the arts education money. Currently, every student in New York City stands to lose arts programming if COVID-era stimulus funding is not restored. 

In addition to saving the expiring federal funding, the It Starts with the Arts Campaign is calling on the city to:

  • Require DOE arts funding be spent on the arts ($15M): Boost the per student arts allocation to $100 from $80.47, and require that money be spent on arts education.
  • Ensure Every School Has a Certified Arts Teachers ($38M): Ensure that all schools have at least one certified arts teacher, closing the equity gap for at least 307 schools. This can be done in part by bolstering the pipeline of certified arts teachers via a supplemental certification program ($4M).
  • Restore and Enhance “Support for Arts Instruction” initiative funding: Build on city’s down payment and boost allocation from $4M to $6M.
  • Center Arts and Culture in Youth Development Programs: Allocate at least $5 million to fund arts and cultural education opportunities during Summer Rising 2024 and other DYCD programs to support public safety and continued community-building opportunities via the arts.
  • Restore and Baseline Funding for the Department of Cultural Affairs: Reverse November ($20M) and preliminary budget cuts to DCLA ($15.5M) and restore/baseline FY23’s one-time addition of $45M to Cultural Institutions Group and all cultural organizations across the city ($45M).
  • Improve arts education data transparency by compelling NYC Public Schools to provide a school-by-school breakdown of the state of arts education.

About NYC Arts in Education Roundtable

The New York City Arts in Education Roundtable is a service organization and a community of arts education practitioners sharing information, providing professional development, and communicating with the public to promote our work in schools and beyond.