Testimony to the New York City Council Committee on Cultural Affairs 
Hon. Carlina Rivera, Chair
Hearing: Preliminary Budget Hearing – Fiscal Year 2026
Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Thank you to Chair Rivera, fellow Committee Members and Council staff, for your passion, leadership, and support of arts education in New York City. 

My name is Kimberly Olsen, and I am proud to be the Executive Director of the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable. I’m testifying as part of the It Starts with the Arts coalition and Coalition for Equitable Education Funding — calling on our city to prioritize funding for arts education in NYC schools and communities.

The past few years have underscored the profound need for spaces where young people can think critically about the world around them, bolster academic success and mental health, and build resilience. That starts with the arts.

The Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Development Fund are essential resources for NYC’s arts education community, enabling hundreds of organizations to deliver essential arts education services across all five boroughs. These programs, including in-school instruction, afterschool programs, field trips, arts partnerships, and teen programs, funded by CDF, cultivate not only the next generation of arts workers and audiences but prepare our city’s young people with the skills necessary to enter the 21st-century workforce.

Last week’s education hearing revealed that approximately 300 schools still lack certified arts teachers, a persistent issue for over a decade, leaving thousands of students without dedicated arts instruction. Furthermore, the rollout of the Class Size Mandate, proposed changes to the Foundation Aid formula, and shifting federal funding threaten to widen the arts education access gap for years to come. 

More than 700 cultural organizations worked in partnership with schools last year to bridge that gap, broaden access to world-class artists, and provide external funding to schools. Unfortunately, delays in CDF award notices and NYCPS’ MTAC contracting process (averaging 16-28 months by a recent member survey) impede these efforts, causing lost educational opportunities and financial hardship for both organizations and an estimated 5,000 Teaching Artists working in our city. 

As a result – Teaching Artists, a vital workforce within our city’s cultural and educational landscape, face unstable employment and inconsistent compensation. For hiring organizations engaged in contracts with city government agencies, persistent delays in payment and the reimbursement-model of contracting can greatly impact an organization’s cash flow — forcing organizations to balance the financial stability of the organization with timely payment and liveable wages. The fluctuating number of certified arts teachers adds another layer of complexity — as Teaching Artists are increasingly relied upon to fill gaps in arts instruction, yet often lack the same job security and benefits. The Roundtable looks forward to releasing a comprehensive report on teaching artist compensation and employment trends in NYC this spring.

Investing in arts education is an investment in our future. Therefore, I urge our City to take decisive action to ensure that all students have access to high-quality arts education. This includes: 

• Extend and baseline at-risk arts education funding ($41M) – alongside other education programs on the chopping block previous funding by federal stimulus dollars: Following one-year funding to off-set expiring temporary federal stimulus dollars and city funds, arts education programs (alongside early childhood, community schools, teacher recruitment, and more) are once again at-risk of being eliminated. We stand with the Coalition of Equitable Education Funding and call on the city to shift from a one-year restoration to an annual allocation to sustain arts education and other programs currently on the chopping block.

• Ensure Every School Has a Certified Arts Teachers ($39.8M): Ensure that all schools have at least one certified arts teacher, closing the equity gap for at least 379 schools. This can be done in part by bolstering the pipeline of certified arts teachers via supplemental certification program ($4M) or funding a PE Works-inspired improvement plan.
• Restore and Enhance “Support for Arts Instruction” initiative funding ($6M): Build on city’s down payment and boost allocation from $4M to $6M to meet city-wide demand.
• Require DOE arts funding be spent on the arts ($12.5M): Boost the per student arts allocation to $100 from $86.67 and require that money be spent on arts education.

• Center Arts and Culture in Youth Development Programs ($5M): Allocate funds to better support arts and cultural education opportunities during Summer Rising 2025 and other DYCD programs to support public safety and continued community-building opportunities via the arts.
• Restore and Increase Baseline Funding for the Department of Cultural Affairs ($75M): Add $45M to baseline funding plus a one-time add of $30M to support sustainable funding for CDF but also proper staffing for the agency to handle the volume of activities and grantmaking.

• Improve arts education data transparency around arts education access, participation, and quality by compelling NYCPS to provide a school-by-school breakdown of the state of arts education in public schools via a Hearing, Legislative Services Request, T&C, and/or Oversight Hearing.
• Prioritize timely processing of contract renewals and extensions: As a nonprofit who is still waiting to be paid for work done in FY23 and FY24 by NYC Public Schools, our City should establish accountability mechanisms to ensure that agency staff process awards, extensions and renewals so that service gaps are avoided (especially when it comes to MTAC process within NYCPS).

We want inviting, colorful, vibrant, and thriving communities — that starts with the arts. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Kimberly Olsen
Executive Director
NYC Arts in Education Roundtable
Email: kolsen@nycaieroundtable.org