26-146: Standing up for arts in our schools
By Gwen Sullivan of Portland, Oregon. Gwen is a teacher in the Portland Public Schools and president of the Portland Association of Teachers.
Portland’s embarrassing lack of arts and music education in our public schools puts our kids’ future at risk. Along with an amazing coalition of educators, parents, local business people, community leaders and citizens from throughout Portland, I believe that Measure 26-146 is a powerful and creative solution that will help keep students engaged in school and on track to graduate.
Some have questioned if this proposal is really good for our schools. As a teacher, a PPS Parent and the President of the Portland Association of Teachers, my answer is absolutely yes.
26-146 will fully fund elementary arts teachers for all six Portland school districts ensuring that every Portland elementary school student gets arts education every week. It will make arts supplies, arts programs and arts field trips freely available to K-12 students citywide with approximately $1.6M in grant funds to schools and non-profits. And it will fund teachers on special assignment to coordinate arts education opportunities for every K-12 student in Portland’s six school districts.
Measure 26-146 provides critical new funding and resources that are desperately needed by our schools. It WON’T require school districts to spend additional money on arts education at the expense of other vital programs or force schools to hire new teachers if they already offer weekly arts education.
Some have suggested that 26-146 does not make a significant enough investment in arts education because nearly half of the funds will be administered by the Regional Arts & Culture Council. I believe that this package is made stronger with RACC’s inclusion.
RACC’s funding of teachers on special assignment, art supplies, K-12 arts programs and K-12 arts field trips are essential components of this arts education package. And the remaining 31% of the fund that RACC will invest in arts access is a vitally important investment for our City. And, further supports arts education by funding organizations like Children’s Healing Art Project, Oregon Children’s Theatre, Portland Youth Philharmonic, Young Audiences, Ethos Music Center, Metropolitan Youth Symphony, Northwest Children’s Theatre and Tears of Joy Theatre.
Some have suggested that this measure would be hurtful to the low-income residents of our city. I couldn’t disagree more. And I am not alone.
I stand with Street Roots, perhaps the strongest voice for lower income and marginalized people in our community, which has just endorsed Measure 26-146.
“Art is everywhere in Portland. It’s at the core of our city’s personality. But in our core institutions, particularly for children and the poor, art is either nonexistent or out of financial and social reach…For $35 per person we can fund not only public school programs but also programs generating community involvement among people who are social and economically marginalized.” ("Measuring Up." Street Roots [Portland] October 12, 2012, News: Page 3.)
Every tax has its problems. But I believe that one of the most important problems we face is the lack of arts and music education in our public schools – a hole in basic curriculum that limits educational opportunities for our children. Measure 26-146 is good for schools, good for kids, good for citizens and good for the city. And our kids are counting on it and us to come through.
Please join me in Voting Yes for Measure 26-146. Find out more at www.schoolsartstogether.com.
|
Oct. 23, 2012
Posted in guest column. |
More Recent Posts | |
Albert Kaufman |
|
Guest Column |
|
Kari Chisholm |
|
Kari Chisholm |
Final pre-census estimate: Oregon's getting a sixth congressional seat |
Albert Kaufman |
Polluted by Money - How corporate cash corrupted one of the greenest states in America |
Guest Column |
|
Albert Kaufman |
Our Democrat Representatives in Action - What's on your wish list? |
Kari Chisholm |
|
Guest Column |
|
Kari Chisholm |
|
connect with blueoregon
3:36 p.m.
Oct 23, '12
Poorly conceived, extremely regressive worse-than-flat-tax. Working folks paying the same exact amount as rich folks? Come on.
The progressive vote on this measure is a strong "NO."
12:00 p.m.
Oct 24, '12
$35. Every time you say or hear "regressive," just remember ... $35.
8:33 p.m.
Oct 24, '12
A half-day's pay, after taxes, for someone on minimum wage.
1:04 a.m.
Oct 29, '12
The working, unemployed, and disabled poor can do the math, especially when it comes to very the small numbers that make up their lives and the thin, thin line that is the difference between make it or late rent.
Here's a despairing thought - what if poor parents and families lay awake nights wishing there were some way their grade school kids would fall in love with something - anything - about school? Something that they would wait all week to do, would try to be good for because they loved it so.
Something they could count on to bring their kids running in the door after school, breathless to show someone, to talk to someone about what they did, how they did it. Something they would continue to do in the evening, maybe instead of TV or video games during the long, rainy evenings of being poor - not much interesting to do except hang out, wander around the malls, be bored and get tempted to trouble. Maybe even have access to expanded modules online to check out with their spare time.
Something they thrived on, couldn't wait to try out each new thing. Something to be there their entire public school attendance... maybe even offered as a structured program during summer. Something that might mean a work study or internship, even for high school.
Something that would get them to stay in school long enough to get through high school.... Dare they hope - a scholarship?
But for now, just for now at least, a reason to quicken their kid's step for the bus in the morning so as not to be late.
Art Class. What will you do today in art class?
Maybe that night's sleep would be worth 10 cents a day for the next year.
Enough said? I mean besides the Street Roots endorsement? And I'll try not to dwell too long on the despairing thought that you so easily discount, "perhaps the strongest voice for lower income and marginalized people" as to ignore it.
11:58 p.m.
Oct 24, '12
I remember that I'll pay $35, and so will Eileen Brady and Ron Saxton. I don't like that very much.
2:37 p.m.
Oct 25, '12
And if you have 2 minimum wage workers in your house, it's $70.
12:09 a.m.
Oct 29, '12
It really feels like you are choosing words to be contentious. Regressive is defined as flat. How can it be regressive and worse than regressive? Please explain so as not to loose your point in the weeds of hyperbole.
It will take some large distinction, though, to support that you are not arguing for argument's sake, standing on principle (usually the equivalent of standing on a pile of poo - take a whiff) rather than picking your battles.
For example, if you believe that establishing a progressive tax basis to fund the arts in schools is a ploy to bring in a ringer at another date to tack onto the arts funding, or perhaps that arts funding will skyrocket eventually, well, let's talk about that.
But I for one am not willing to let one more batch of kids pass through the primary grades without their knowing how to think creatively and how is important that is, for the love of a few very small beans. Because all the science and math curriculum in the world will not solve any problems, envision any new thing, or make their lives happier ones without creative thinking.
After all, Gwen is working folks,too. Maybe it's time to relieve her and her constituency of digging in the couch cushions for change and eating so much Ramen noodles at lunch to find money to pay for their own classroom supplies.
What say you Logan?
5:40 p.m.
Oct 23, '12
So needed for North and Northeast Portland elementary schools.
10:57 p.m.
Oct 23, '12
Sen. Shields,
You're absolutely right.
BUT can you really say that the way this measure is funded is fair to working families in N and NE Portland?
3:02 p.m.
Oct 24, '12
This is the proposal that is before Portland voters. if it fails, we are unlikely to see another any time soon, so let's make it very clear that a vote against this measure is a vote against Arts Programs for kids, especially in the places where they are needed the most.
8:59 p.m.
Oct 24, '12
Places like the Riverdale school district?
8:52 a.m.
Oct 26, '12
No Sal. A vote against this issue is a vote against unfair taxation. I fully support the arts and education and I personally find it offensive when people try to insinuate that I don't when I vote down a bad bill that has more to do with re-distributing wealth from the poor to the well-off than it does with education and art.
1:12 a.m.
Oct 29, '12
Please support that statement by explaining how 10 cents a day is redistributing wealth, especially in light of the Street Roots endorsement?
Or is this battle one you encourage us to take up as autonomous individuals being deprived of our economic status so savagely that we should wait another four years of the portland public school children's lives to prove a point worth $140 a household and a whole grade school arts curriculum delivery missed by that time?
7:20 p.m.
Oct 23, '12
I posted the same thing over on the No column...
Vote yes friends.
This is a small and common sense approach to the idea of helping stabilize the arts community that will ultimately help not only the schools, but government, foundations, private citizens, non-profits and others who right now are responsible for holding up the arts community.
By chipping in and passing this measure —— we are making an investment in both the arts and people experiencing poverty. The idea that this is a tax on the poor is a stretch.
I personally believe that money raised, even for the larger organizations, will help free up dollars that can go to vital programs outside of the arts. We as a community are already paying for these programs, it's a different approach in allocating the dollars...
Saying all that, have faith that groups like Street Roots and other poverty organizations will advocate that the poorest among us will not be unfairly targeted and that the larger organizations will do their part to support the small fish...
8:28 p.m.
Oct 23, '12
Thank you, Israel. Street Root's endorsement means a lot.
And thank you Senator Shields (and to my Rep. Lew Frederick for his support as well!)--As a NE resident, I know this measure is the single biggest chance my kid has in the near future to get arts in his school.
For those who believe otherwise, please remember that it was City Hall that saved a bunch of arts and music teaching jobs this year with a $7 million cash infusion to our schools. Your school might have arts this year but those classes go away next year when the City money is gone. So the academic argument that we "shouldn't piecemeal fund education"...isn't valid, we are already doing that.
Now, with this measure, we actually have the chance to be strategic about the whole of creativity for our kids and in our community. Next, we can make progress together on the statewide funding reform we all agree is needed. Vote Yes.
9:30 p.m.
Oct 23, '12
“Measure 26-146 is a creative solution to a real problem.” City Club of Portland
10:42 p.m.
Oct 23, '12
When I was an English Language Learners (ELL) educator in Parkrose School District, I saw first hand how powerful the arts were in our most at-risk students' lives.
The difference between showing up at school and not showing up at school for many of my students with chronic attendance problems and real challenges at home was if they had choir or art class in their schedule that day. These classes give students without a mastery of English the opportunity to shine, interact in an equal way with their native-speaking peers, and gain real self-confidence. Research shows that integrating art, dance and music into the teaching of English to ELL students improves language acquisition, too, and this measure provides funding for these kinds of arts integration strategies through programs like the Right Brain Initiative, too.
Sadly, the choir class that my ELL students would come to school not to miss is no longer offered, because there is no longer a choir teacher. Budget cuts.
Measure 26-146 has the potential to empower and serve not only ELL students and their families, but all students and their families across Portland, and to me the choice is very clear. We need more teachers in our schools, we need increased access to the arts in underserved communities, and we need to restore arts and music in our schools.
I am voting YES. Голосую "ДА".
10:47 p.m.
Oct 23, '12
There is theory and then there's practice. You can spend a lot of time hyper-analyzing $35 through an academic microscope. In the real world, this is a modest fee that will go a long way toward equalizing arts access for kids in poorer neighborhoods without well-padded PTAs. This $35 fee will be able to be paid in installments, should a person or family feel the need to do so. In totality, 26-146 will help more people with the least burden on all. And it will be catalytic in advancing our other needed school funding reforms.
8:56 a.m.
Oct 26, '12
It's not about the $35 damnit. It's about the fact that I pay $35 and so does someone who makes over a million dollars a year. It's also about the fact that nearly half of the money does not go to needy schools. Instead it goes to things like Oregon Opera and other similar arts venues that do not support children directly at all, and also that have their own revenue streams.
1:21 a.m.
Oct 29, '12
You really don't understand about partnering with organizations in the community that exist and serve common good, do you?
I mean, do you even have a kid? Has that kid or will that kid have access to the Oregon Opera or similar arts venues children's education programs outside of school? You know, for hundreds of dollars for the the same program provided by those same venues as they would have access to in school ? No? You don't have that kind of pocket money you say?
Exactly. Pretty good deal, huh?
Oh. wait - you don't have a kid? Don't be a Scrooge!
10:56 p.m.
Oct 23, '12
I don't think ANYBODY disagrees that our school sorely need more funding for arts education.
But the issue with this measure is that the funding mechanism is extremely regressive.
We can do better. It's possible to come up with a funding mechanism that is progressive. A funding mechanism that doesn't hit working families hardest while barely touching millionaires.
Let's work together to find a better solution, and come back in two years with something that progressive Portlanders can be proud to support.
12:06 p.m.
Oct 24, '12
Oh, right, because no one has been trying to work together to find a solution for school funding?!
Like the Multnomah County ITax, this measure presents a great opportunity to say to the rest of the state: "we're willing to pay for what we care about."
8:58 a.m.
Oct 26, '12
Your making my own argument for me. The Multnomah County ITax was a bad tax, unfairly putting an additional burden on poor people who could not afford it.
3:04 p.m.
Oct 24, '12
This is the proposal on the table. If it fails, we won't see another one for a long time and Portland school children will be the ones taking the biggest hit.
A vote against this measure is a vote against art instruction for kids. Period.
2:40 p.m.
Oct 25, '12
Portland school bond came right back with an improved proposal, and is likely to pass.
11:04 p.m.
Oct 25, '12
Totally different situation. This isn't a campaign created by one school district. This was created by a coalition of people: the mayor, the arts community, all Portland area school districts, concerned citizens. You won't get this collection of people together again to work this hard on an arts measure with the support of a sitting mayor. Then again, it looks like Logan has volunteered to lead, fund, research, and devise another campaign in two years. Logan, are to up to the task?
8:58 a.m.
Oct 26, '12
There needs to be an unlike button Kari.
1:28 a.m.
Oct 29, '12
Hey! Do you see me asking you for the second time: Can you explain that?
Given 10 cents a day please define "extreme."
And unless you are as poor as the folks Street Roots can claim as their constituency, stand down off the soap box, My Brother, because they have first dibs on the pockets of those billionaires.
Two years is too long, too late. You read that post from the ELL teacher? You see the latest Fordham Foundation report on our schools?
No?
Thought not. NEXT!
8:15 a.m.
Oct 24, '12
Interesting that two of Sam Adam's staff (Jennifer Yocum and CarynBrooks) are making the case for this measure. Obviously doing what they can to save the mayor's (tarnished) legacy.
12:03 p.m.
Oct 24, '12
Or the Mayor is supporting it because he supports it, like everyone else should.
12:30 p.m.
Oct 24, '12
I must have missed the meme that says people should vote in a monolithic block without critical analysis and possible objections. As Logan said, no one disagrees about that we need funding for arts in our schools
Snarkyness aside, this is, in my opinion, a pretty poorly constructed measure and is once again putting another band-aid on the severe funding wound. We will never be able to stop the piecemeal funding approach of our schools if we keep saying "just this one more time" We are doing ourselves and our children a huge disservice in the long run.
I supposed that everyone who supports this measure is it is designed, should also support, in the same monetary value, a PE measure and technology measure both which are absolutely jokes in most Portland schools todau
1:40 p.m.
Oct 24, '12
Please explain the prior "band-aids," of which this is just another? This is unique, both in terms of what it is funding, and how it's doing it. I'd say that sometimes the best solutions to intractable problems, are the unique solutions.
7:53 p.m.
Oct 24, '12
I am a visual learner. I needed the arts growing up to help me learn how to learn. I am a new mother and I live Northeast and I do the work I do for Mayor Adams because I believe in the work. Anyone that knows me knows that. My kid's future depends on it and so does the prosperity of our community. Also - it's spelled Yocom with two o's.
2:41 p.m.
Oct 25, '12
My bad and apologizes for not correctly spelling your last name; I do know a Yocum.
1:33 a.m.
Oct 29, '12
Well, My friend, now you know a Yocom.
10:33 p.m.
Oct 24, '12
Indeed it is interesting that two people who worked for years on this measure and evaluated all the various possibilities for the mechanism are here to respond. Actual policy makers right here in the comments section! Using our real names! During off hours, of course.
3:14 p.m.
Oct 25, '12
While I commend the effort you and Jennifer have put behind this, it does mean it is correct. I have two kids in school and have seen Physical Education whittled down to two 20-25 minute classes/per week. I personally believe that PE is just as important to a child's education as the arts as we continue to see childhood obesity rise. Should we have another tax to make sure we have a robust physical education programs in all Portland schools? What is about a science tax to make sure every school has the proper and equal distribution of science equipment, which PPS has failed to deliver?
11:11 p.m.
Oct 25, '12
You raise a good question, Jeff. And if there aren't dramatic changes to the way we fund schools in this state, we very well might pay into the school system to support things we think are important that have been whittled away. Next time it might be PE. Right now it's the arts.
1:31 a.m.
Oct 29, '12
Sam has been pretty lopsided at times, but he has ALWAYS been The Children's Mayor. Give him time. He'll may yet do one more thing to actually earn that comment.
9:32 p.m.
Oct 24, '12
Can anyone explain the details of how the tax would be collected?
10:27 p.m.
Oct 24, '12
Individuals will file a tax return at the same time that federal and state taxes are due. The first payment – by mail or online – will be due in 2013. The Revenue Bureau of the City of Portland will oversee and process collections.
1:36 a.m.
Oct 29, '12
Hmmm...that sounds like a lot of administrative costs? Know anything about that. I'm a paperweight for on this one.
11:40 p.m.
Oct 24, '12
I have two children in the public schools but had four just four years ago. We have lots of experience with the decade or more long set of cutbacks in physical education, athletics, arts and music, college counseling, extracurriculars, Outdoor School. I have worked auctions, sold wreaths and candy, and countless other items to allow our elementary and middle schools to have arts AND physical education AND language instruction AND class sizes below 30.
All things I care about. Any one of which we can find data showing us how critical it is to a good education.
I frankly get really offended when I am told because I oppose a terribly designed proposal like that that it means I am against arts instruction.
I voted for the bond. I voted for the library. But I voted no on this proposal.
The tax is regressive.
The funding formula, based on population only, makes it even worse. Because everyone pays in and the money goes out without regard to prior resources, the will transfer resources from the poor to the middle class. It's about the most brain dead funding mechanism you could design, middle class welfare at its best.
The whole fund is administered not by an elected body, not by a principal, school board, or PTA, but by an unelected private entity.
This is no slight on the RACC, but in what other circumstance would progressives support an arrangement like this?
Contrary to the claims of the Ms. Sullivan, less than 10% of the RACC grants go to organizations supporting youth arts--most grants go to the ballet, symphony, Portland Art museum, etc.
There are all fine organizations, but please don't tell me the remaining 31% goes to arts education--the facts are right there in the IRS 990 form.
I'm sorry that things have gotten so bad in this town that we're left to support badly designed measures such as this. I'm sorry that teachers are so desperate that they are willing to cede 40-50 cents of every dollar ostensibly collected for arts education so they can be left with the crumbs.
But this proposal is about as far from progressive and liberal as it can be, and I just can't support it.
1:06 p.m.
Oct 25, '12
Hi, Paul. It appears that you are unfamiliar with the many ways that the ballet, symphony, Portland Art Museum, etc. support our youth. These largest organizations provide the lion's share of residencies, assemblies, and field trips in our constrained arts education system. That is why having the remaining 31% going to them makes so much sense! It will help them serve our youth AND the rest of the community through more free and reduced arts experiences!
9:02 a.m.
Oct 26, '12
Hogwash. Those efforts to support youth from those organizations are a minor pittance in compared to the overall costs of running those operations.
1:41 a.m.
Oct 29, '12
Well, Jeff... got an URL with some pictures, charts, arrows and diagrams that support your premise of how this works?
11:15 p.m.
Oct 30, '12
Jeff You are correct, I am unfamiliar. I had two children spend 11 years in the Portland Public School system, attending some higher income schools in the district (Duniway, Sellwood, Cleveland). I do not remember a single visit or experience with the symphony, ballet, or art museum. Both were involved in the arts.
My two younger children have no logged 7 and 4 years in the system, and the older attends an arts magnet. He has never had a field trip, or visiting artist.
So yes, paint me skeptical, unless you can point to specific expenditures by these organizations that specifically support community or youth education.
Otherwise, it seems quite obvious that this dedicated tax will just replace City dollars that already flow from the general fund to RACC and then to the ballet, symphony, and art museum.
I repeat: i have no complaint about these organizations. But no one has shown me a compelling reason that they deserve a dedicated tax revenue stream instead of the many other pressing needs in the PPS.
8:02 a.m.
Oct 25, '12
Frankly, public educators in Oregon, and those that support our work, are now down to begging to keep programs alive. We would really appreciate not having to do this on a regular basis as we are kind of busy educating our students. With that said, since we continue to wait for a real solution to the funding problem facing our schools we must do now to save teachers, our programs, and days for students to be in school and be given an education that includes the arts, sports, and career and technical classes.
Thanks, Gwen for speaking up!
5:04 p.m.
Oct 25, '12
I think it's deeply ironic and unfortunate that people who make the minimum wage are being asked to fork up (as was pointed out earlier) a half-day's pay in order to fund the RACC's efforts to get them tickets to performances they may not be remotely interested in. I voted no because I believe it to be a regressive tax and because I think it's singularly inappropriate to fund RACC with such a tax.
1:44 a.m.
Oct 29, '12
Whoa. Whoa. whoa.
Street Roots. Stop talking RACC and start talking the Street Roots endorsement. They represent the poorest of the poor. How is it you know more than they?
2:31 p.m.
Oct 29, '12
The authors claim that they "worked for years on this measure and evaluated all the various possibilities for the mechanism", and are here to respond.
Were any other funding mechanisms than "$35 apiece" considered, and if so, what were those, and why were they rejected?