Celebrating TMEA’s Centennial TEA, and legislative hearings. During this time of policy crises, TMEA began nurturing positive relationships with policy makers and developed a national reputation for helping shape state policy. As Sally Schott came onto the Board in 1981, she reflected on the words of her predecessor Henry Schraub: Historically, TMEA has avoided any sustained political involvement at the state level. While there were sound reasons for such an approach, music educators in Texas can no longer afford such non-involvement. If music education is to continue its significant impact on the education of boys and girls in Texas, this association and its individual members must become involved in the legislative process as it relates to the public school. TMEA became involved in the issues related to the No Pass No Play rule (HB 72) in 1983. To protect the curricular, academic delivery of instruction in the classroom, TMEA acknowledged that aspects of our programs, such as trips, competitions, and marching band were extracurricular. The Senate Education Committee looked in disbelief as TMEA Past-President Bryce Taylor explained this position. It was a breakthrough in elevating our credibility and respect for our discipline in the eyes of the legislative leadership. Symposium ’85 Continuing on the idea that began in the 1970s, TMEA hosted this symposium for a group of members to examine the state of music education. Past-Presidents Sally Schott and Bill Woods chaired this symposium entitled “Music Is Essential for a Quality Education.” A multitude of nationally renowned speakers were present, and the delegation of members faced some hard truths about the status of our profession. The recommendations and final reports were extensive and would continue to challenge us through the ’90s. TMEA Budget and School Finance In the late 1980s, TMEA leaders were working to limit spending and get our association budget under control. We were also facing concerns about how our state’s response to a lawsuit over school finance might ultimately affect our programs. TMEA leaders were in constant contact with legislators to ensure that reactions to these issues didn’t lead to overreaching changes such as not allowing any state funds to support extracurricular activities. Some worried we would lose the ground we gained when music became a required subject in the curriculum. Texas Music Education Research In 1989 TMEA began binding music education research reports curated by the College Division Research Committee under the title Texas Music Education Research (TMER). Papers presented at the 1989 convention were submitted for further review and selection to this publication (a process that continues today). Editor Robert A. Duke explained in that first publication preface, “There are few state organizations that encourage and support empirical research to the extent of that reflected in this document. Such a tangible commitment to improving the quality of music education 40 Southwestern Musician | April 2020
in Texas schools is both unusual and important.” In 2015, TMER was assigned an ISSN and issues are now indexed and discoverable online through ERIC and EBSCO.
Marked By Change: The 1990s As we entered the early ’90s, TMEA helped members navigate the new waters of block scheduling and school response to low test scores—the emerging threats to school music programs. TMEA leaders also worked with TEA to create guidelines that would allow districts to provide private lesson programs, responding to legal issues that had been raised about this practice. In TMEA’s 1991 annual report, Bill Cormack outlined several state and national educational issues and priorities, explaining how any of them could have the potential of removing music programs from our schools. “You are the ones to keep this from happening. While this sounds like gloom and doom, let us for a minute remember the problems of the past and how we as an association worked to protect our ability to offer music in our schools to our students. We have been successful.” As we had throughout the 1980s, TMEA continued its work at the state level to ensure music opportunities for all students. In the early ’90s, TMEA successfully appealed for the inclusion of a fine arts requirement in the Recommended High School Graduation Program. In 1994, TEA claimed they couldn’t fund new textbooks for our music students. In response, TMEA surveyed school districts representing 60% of the student population and determined the true needs for music texts. Through this research, TMEA was able to ensure elementary music students would receive resource materials and we helped the state save approximately $20 million in the process. Most significantly, in 1995, during the rewrite of the Texas Education Code, TMEA and other enrichment subject associations successfully lobbied to have fine arts included in the required curriculum as a TEKS-based subject “all school districts must offer.” We fought our way back from an initial position of fine arts being a subject that may, not shall, be a part of a recommended, not required, curriculum.
wðæĊðťÆĊĴ :īďœĴì ðĊ }œď #ÐÆÌÐĮ TMEA experienced significant growth in several areas through the 1980s and 1990s, including: • All-State ensembles doubled from 6 to 12. • Membership expanded 54%, from 4,224 to 6,490. • Active member dues increased from $15 to $40. • Convention attendance more than doubled to 19,689. • Convention fees for active members went from $10 to $40. • Scholarships awarded increased from $10,000 to $22,500. • TMEA’s revenue budget grew from $274,000 to $1.3 million.
