Blount County, Tennessee. The concert was organized by the choral director, Stacey Wilner, and the art teacher, Carla Thomas, with the support of the Tennessee Coalition for Music Education (an affiliate of the National Coalition). The second half of the concert would open with an empty stage to represent the loss of the music program. Country stars were sending in letters of support, Mike Greene had considered attending, and there were rumors and local newspaper stories about Garth Brooks (the hottest star at the time) attending the concert to support the protest. Why was this so important? Because this is the hometown of Lamar Alexander, the same person who said, “If it were my community I would want to be sure that the school provided music and art.” Well, this was his community and he was about to be held accountable for his words. The secretary of education became so obsessed with the potential for bad publicity in his hometown he went so far as to have his public affairs officer contact a local newspaper and pose as a parent to see if Garth Brooks would be at the concert for fear of the additional negative media that would create. That’s right you read this correctly. And yes… this was amazing! The combination of being called out on the Grammys telecast and the poten-
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Choral Director • March 2012
tial to be publicly embarrassed in his own hometown proved to be too much.
Blink In an effort to head of the negative press, Secretary Alexander announced from a pay phone in an airport to an education reporter for the Tennessean Newspaper in Nashville, the creation of the “America 2000 Arts Partnership,” just in time to be printed in the paper the day of the concert (March 6, 1992). Think about this. A major new education initiative for music and arts education for the country coming from the US Department of Education is announced to an education reporter in Nashville! Which brings us to the main question: Did this decision have anything to do with… children? The answer, unfortunately, is no. It was all about politics and perceptions. This is a very important lesson that has driven the modern day arts education advocacy movement. It would be three weeks before the formal details of the plan were released. When they were music and arts education were at least invited to the table: The America 2000 Arts Partnership. The plan spoke of National Standards for Arts Education but stopped short of embracing the arts as a core subject. It would take a change of administration and a new secretary of education to make this happen.
The New Administration Seals the Victory With the change of administration after the 1992 election a new secretary of education, Richard Riley, entered the scene. After being in office for less than one month – on February 23, 1993 (we know for a fact this was strategically released on the eve of the Grammy Awards), the new US secretary of education released the following statement on the importance of Arts in education: As we work to improve the quality of education for all children, the arts must be recognized as a vital part of our effort. The arts – including music, theater, dance, and visual arts – are a unique medium for communicating what is common to all of us as human beings and what is special to each of us as creative individuals. The arts provide valuable opportunities for understanding our cultural heritage and that of all other civilizations. The arts also enhance our nation’s economic competitiveness by developing creative problem-solving skills, imagination, self-discipline and attention to detail. Emerging national education standards will, for the first time, provide a clear vision of the knowledge, skills, and concepts that all students need to learn through studying the arts. Building on existing arts education partnerships, the Department will imple-