CALL TO ACTION: Arts Education Needs Federal ESSER Funding- Public Comment Open for NC State ARP ESSER Plan until June 18 at 5PM
The NC Department of Public Instruction is has issued an invitation for public comment on the NC State plan for state and local spending of over $3.2 billion in federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding.
NOW is the time to speak up for arts education in public schools. Go to the public comment portal and enter your name, school district, email and phone number, as well as your comments. Cut & paste the message below, make edits, or write your own. Review the NC State ARP ESSER Plan and support arts education by speaking to our state education leaders.
Comments must be submitted BEFORE 5:00pm FRIDAY, June 18th. SO ACT NOW!
Cut & Paste Comments to Use (and Edit):
Arts Education (Dance, Music, Theatre Arts, Visual Arts) is essential for our students as it not only provides them key building blocks of creativity and social emotional learning (SEL), but has been proven in countless studies to improve performance in other academic subjects as well.
I request that North Carolina allocate and encourage PSUs to allocate ESSER funding:
- To create and provide arts education programing to promote social emotional learning (SEL) statewide as an essential part of summer, after-school, and other supplemental programs to meet the needs of students as they work to address learning loss caused by the pandemic.
- To provide funding to support the salaries of arts instructors to maintain stable continuity of service. Many educators are being lost or transferred from stable positions due to temporary enrollment drops in arts courses caused by the pandemic, destabilizing these departments when they are needed most.
- To purchase or reimburse the cost of PPE and additional supplies for arts instruction in all disciplines that will enable students to participate in arts education classes more safely as they overcome learning loss in arts courses, and because of the arts excel in other academic pursuits.
- To partner with local state and federal organizations and agencies to promote arts exposure (such as with NC Arts Council, and local arts councils and organizations) and arts integration (such as with A+ Schools of NC and other organizations) which are both part of a comprehensive arts education as defined by the NC Department of Public Instruction.
- To cover costs of other allowable uses of ESSER funds for arts education that can be found here: http://artsnc.org/docs/ESSER_Recommendations_6_21.pdf