House Disproportionately Cuts National Endowment for the Arts Funding by 49%

YOUR VOICE MIGHT MAKE THE DIFFERENCE.

Today, the U.S House of Representatives Interior Appropriations Subcommittee approved its initial FY 2014 funding legislation, which includes a proposed cut of $71 million to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This would bring funding of the NEA down to $75 million, a level not seen since 1974!

Please take two minutes to send a customizable message to your members of Congress rejecting these dramatic cuts to NEA funding.

While the subcommittee bill includes a 20 percent reduction in total spending as a part of the House budget plan, the proposed cuts of 49 percent to the NEA are significantly disproportionate. The arts community recognizes the challenges our elected leaders face in prioritizing federal resources, but funding for the NEA has already been cut by more than $29 million over the past three years. These disproportionate cuts recall the dramatic decline of federal funding for the arts in the early 90s, from which the agency has still not recovered.

In her statement during today’s markup, senior appropriator Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) said these cuts “harken back to a time when a misguided war on the arts and culture ignored the educational and cultural benefits they provide our communities.”

	Final FY 2013 (includes 5% sequester cut)	FY 2014 President's Request	FY 2014 House Subcommittee Proposal
National Endowment for the Arts	$138.4 million	$154.466 million	$75 million
National Endowment for the Humanities	$138.4 million	$154.466 million	$75 million

ABOVE AND BEYOND--Moving America's Schools Full STEAM Ahead with Arts Integration Reason 1 of 45

• Learn more about Arts Integration and what it means in schools.
• Why ARTS Integration?
• Changing education through the Arts (CETA).
• Arts Integration in practice.
• Arts Integration Resources.
• Learn more about STE(A)M?

ABOVE & BEYOND

DOWNLOAD A FREE 4 C's POSTER BASED ON THIS ANIMATION.

FableVision in Partnership with P21st Century Skills SHOWS us how the arts interface with STEM work.  Take a look at these students and how they approach their project of building a go-cart and complement each other with two different approaches to getting things done.  This was going to be closer to number 1 but we think we should let you help share this before travelling to the RA.

"We're not finished, we've only just begun..."


In an increasingly complex, demanding and competitive 21st century, students need to learn more than the 3R’s they are tested on in school. It’s time to help them go “above & beyond”, by embracing the 4Cs – communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity.

HOW WOULD YOU TELL THE
STORY OF THE 4 C'S??
4Cs@fablevision.com
Your story could be the next short,
powerful animation.

To get the word out to about the “3Rs + 4Cs” approach, P21 and FableVision partnered to produce a short, animated film called Above & Beyond. Enjoy & share, so we can help ALL our students flourish in the 21st century.

Many members of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills helped shape and refine this story – using their communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity skills. Special thanks to Ken Kay, Tim Magner and the Executive Board and Strategic Council of The Partnership for 21st Century Skills for all their time, talent and vision on this project.

Arts Integration & STEAM Talking Points

CLICK HERE for access to talking points for Arts Integration in your school and STEAM in your building, district or state.

60 Great STEAM Computer APPs--Moving America's Schools Full Steam Ahead with Arts Integration Reason 2 of 45

Learn more about ARTS INTEGRATION
Learn more about STE(A)M.


The ideas driving the STE(A)M movement in the United States involve infusing and integrating the Arts into the STEM disciplines and content areas.

It is such a strong idea not because we want our STEM colleagues to become Arts teachers but because using the arts really accomplishs a great deal of what we hope to accomplish with NBI #2 at this year's 2013 RA.  STE(A)M offers tools to: increase student learning through improved engagement; a great deal of nueroscience research supports use of the arts to improve cognition and meta-cognition; it teaches transferable skills unique to the arts that improves the skills set of STEAM learners; as a result, it improves our student/s employability skills  set and it assists educators in being strong practitioners.

CHECK OUT THESE WONDERFUL APPS TO ASSIST IN TEACHING STE(A)M.

60 GREAT COMPUTER APPS TO IMPLEMENT STEAM & ARTS INTEGRATION IN STEM

Reason 3 of 45 in Our 45 Day Countdown to the NEA RA's Adoption of the NEA FINE ARTS CAUCUS STE(A)M New Business Item

What is STE(A)M?

It is time that we join arms with each other and understand that good education is less like a baking recipe that must be followed precisely in pre-determined steps. The destination that we seek for our students is more like a road map.  There are many roads that we can travel to help our students succeed.  STE(A)M is probably not the best approach for all students or all teachers.  It is, however, like a road map.  It offers many different paths that arrive at the same destination.

Sir Kenneth Robinson says that we best approach our work as a gardener might.  STE(A)M uses the arts as a tool for our students to create a situation condusive to learning.  We cannot make students learn, we can't make them be engaged but we can create the conditions that might be ideal for learning.  The art forms assist our students in cultivating divergent thinking, reasoning, metaphor as a tool for understanding, creativity,innovation and so much more.