The 68th National Leadership Assembly

Washington D.C. June 26–30, 2018

This annual event took place in Tysons Corner, Virginia the last week of June this year. The OMEA board supported four delegates from our state to attend. This event included meetings for executive directors from each state association, sessions for state executive board members and advocacy chairs, special sessions for collegiate members, and a day set aside to allow everyone to visit their state congress in Washington, D.C., called “Hill Day.” The following are reports from all of our Oregon attendees on their experience during their week at the Assembly.

Hill Day Recap

Kathy Briggs OMEA President

On June 28, 2018 four representatives from OMEA joined music educators from across the country in Washington, DC on Capitol Hill to advocate for full funding of ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act), which specifically includes music education as part of a well-rounded education. OMEA President Kathy Briggs, Executive Director Carolyn Sutton, Advocacy Co-Chair Andie Andeen, and CNAfME Member Emilie Cochran (Oregon State University) attended advocacy training led by NAfME national policy advisors. Advocacy requests for Fiscal Year 2019 included:

• Supporting access to music education as part of a wellrounded education by fully funding Title IV, Part A at $1.6 billion

• Supporting access to music education for the most disadvantaged students by fully funding Title I, Part A at $15.46 billion

• Supporting professional development for music educators by fully funding Title I-A, Title II-A ($2.29 billion), and Title IV A and F ($27 million)

NAfME was thrilled that Congress’ 2018 bipartisan omnibus appropriations bill provided $1.1 billion for the Title IV-A block grant, a 250% increase from 2017. While grateful for this increase in education funding, NAfME continues to advocate for full funding at $1.6 billion for 2019. Armed with statistics, Oregon’s four advocates met in person with Representative Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR 1st District) and Representative Greg Walden (R-OR 2nd District). Representative Bonamici, a longtime advocate for music education, was fully supportive of all of NAfME requests. Representative Walden was also supportive, pointing out that he was part of the bipartisan vote that passed the increase for 2018. Andie Andeen, through the work of our OMEA Advocacy Committee and the OSMAP project, was able to share statistics on the scarcity of music education offered in Representative Walden’s district and the impact that fully funding would mean to his constituents’ school districts. The OMEA advocates also had meetings with staffers and policy specialists in the offices of Representative Kurt Schrader (D-OR 5th District) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), both of whom also shared their support for fully funding these policies.