Hill Day, 2016
By Pamela Kinsey, MMEA Immediate Past President
Each year, the National Association for Music Education hosts a National
Assembly for the leadership from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and
the European Division (DOE Schools). In conjunction with this Leadership
Conference, one day is spent on Capitol Hill for ‘Hill Day’, where the
leadership takes the opportunity to meet with state representatives and
discuss issues that are important to and directly impact Music Education.
For your leadership from Maine this year, we had two such days. On
Wednesday, June 27, President Sue Barre and Immediate Past President
Pamela Kinsey were fortunate enough to attend a Wednesday Morning
Breakfast sponsored by Senator King. We were able to meet directly with the
Senator in his offices! On Thursday, Sue and Pam were joined by Sam Moore
Young and Ben Potvin and met again with Senator King’s staffers as a follow
up. In separate appointments, we also met with staffers from Senator Susan
Collins office, Representative Chellie Pingree’s office and Representative
Bruce Poliquin’s office. We were even lucky enough to meet directly with
Representative Poliquin briefly outside the doors of a committee meeting of
which he was a part! Check out MMEA’s Facebook Page to see pictures from
our Hill Day visits.
NAfME always briefs the state leadership teams well and offers talking points
to address with representatives. This year, the talking points focused on the
new ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) language, which specifies MUSIC as
a core subject. Great news!! It supports a ‘Well Rounded Education for All
Students’. All of the Maine Representatives supported this legislation so we
are very lucky! The exact wording from NAfME is: ‘for the first time a specific
and separate mention of “music” as a part of a “Well-Rounded
Education”’ (Title VIII, Sec. 8002 of ESSA). What is needed now for this
language is:
1) Awareness of the information that MUSIC is included as part of Title I,
Part A: The level of funding requested by NAfME was matched by the
President’s request, which is great, but we want to make sure that folks
know that this money can be used to “Support Access to Music Education for
the Most Disadvantaged Students” …..and “to provide supplemental funds
for a well-rounded education, including music”.