Snap Fact #259 - President Obama Champions the Importance of the Arts Education!

President Obama has been supporting the arts education in America since before he took office. He promised that he would work to improve the educational system even during his Presidential campaign in 2008. Early in his presidency he requested an increase in funding for artist programs such as National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Smithsonian. He also created the Artistic Corps under the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act signed into law on April 21, 2009 (See yesterday’s SNAP-CAP). 

In addition, the President’s Committee on the Arts established the Turnaround Arts Program. The program provided a stipend of $1 million each year to eight schools across the country to run a two-year pilot program providing relevant training to arts educators, musical instruments, arts supplies, and arts programs. 

"Math and science are not the opposite of art and music. Those things are compatible and we want kids to get a well-rounded education. Part of the problem we've had is that ‘No Child Left Behind,’ the law that was passed by Bush, said we want high standards, which is good, but they said we are going to measure those high standards only by a single high stakes standardized test that we are going to apply during the middle of the school year...a whole bunch of schools said we gotta teach to this test, and art and music isn't tested," said the President. "It's a shame."