Is Music in Michigan On the Road to Success?
Dear Fellow Music Teachers, Christina Hornbach
We are the music educators of Michigan and we are people who don’t and won’t give up! Here in Michigan and nationwide, the educa- tion of our children has been continually in flux and often under attack. Michigan Music Educa- tion Association has been busy and advocacy has been and will be one of our main focal points.
This spring, music educators and music educa- tion supporters in Lansing, Michigan (and all across the country) have been reacting to the announcement by the Lansing School Board and Superintendent Yvonne Caamal-Canul that, in light of budget considerations, elementary music, art and physical education positions will be cut en masse. In place of certified music educators, the district plans to contract out arts education to community artists. In response to this deeply troubling development, we need to CONTINUE TO PROTECT sequential, standards-based music education, as taught by certified educators. Our very own MMEA and NAfME member Mitchell Robinson, Associate Professor at Michigan State University, au- thored a statement, which MMEA and NAfME have endorsed, regarding the cuts. You can view the statement at
http://www.cms.msu.edu/ el/
LansingCuts.php.
In early April, we emailed all MMEA members and asked you to consider taking a moment to add your voices to chorus of opposition to this action in Lansing, by writing a note directly to Superintendent Caamal-Canul: yvonne.
caamal-canul@lansingschools.net If you have not already done so, please let the Superin- tendent know that MMEA and NAfME stand for certified classroom music education, and remind them of what students will be missing if we replace certified teachers with community artists.
We need to persevere on this difficult task; we can bounce back from this adversity in Michi- gan – we are not alone, you are not alone. So, what else can you do?
I’ve identified five critical action items and 5
encourage you to get involved. 1.
What do you know about what is going on outside your district? Check out how Sup- portMusic responds to Michigan’s Music Cuts at
advocacy.nafme.org and click on the Lansing story. 2.
Give a short advocacy speech at your
concert: Go to
advocacy.nafme.org and click on “Resources” and then “How-To Advocacy Guides” for an example. Keep it short and positive. 3.
Be proactive! Celebrate the strengths
of your program and don’t be shy! Invite the local media to a concert, school board members to come to a music class, or a legislator to your concert. 4.
Call your legislator. Be prepared to speak to your legislator (perhaps unlikely), as well as to leave a specific message (more likely). Phone calls may not be tracked by the office, but may have more impact on legisla- tor’s knowledge and decision-making. 5.
If your program is facing elimina- tion or you know of a district/community that needs help, please email MMEA Executive Director Cory Micheel-Mays (cmicheelmays@
sbcglobal.net) and inform him of the situation details; email Chris Woodside, NAfME As- sistant Executive Director for Advocacy and Public Affairs (
chrisw@nafme.org) and keep him apprised of the score, how things stand, so he can help mobilize action (you are the local expert); AND check out
www.musicforall.org and contact them to possibly connect with local help (
mfa.executive@musicforall.org).
We model for our students, our children, our colleagues, and our administrators what we care about and value by what we spend our time on. So, I encourage you to continue to do what you do best and I believe that this is our road to success: teach music well, focus on your students, and continue to advocate for stu- dents’ life-long music making skills developed by certified classroom music educators.
Let’s continue to come together and demon- strate our friendship, community, and profes- sional involvement in MMEA. I look forward to continuing to serve you.
Thanks for your time and support!
President’s Message
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