The executive director of the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable, Kimberly Olsen, recently called on the City Council and mayor to prioritize funding for arts education in NYC schools and communities during a recent City Council hearing.
During a New York City Council Committee on Cultural Affairs preliminary budget hearing about the critical role of cultural organizations, Olsen urged council members to protect funding for the arts and ensure no student loses access to arts education opportunities.
“The Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Development Fund are essential resources for NYC’s arts education community, enabling hundreds of organizations to deliver essential arts education services across all five boroughs. These programs cultivate not only the next generation of arts workers and audiences but prepare our city’s young people with the skills necessary to enter the 21st-century workforce,” said Olsen.
For the Education Roundtable and other groups including the Starts with the Arts coalition and the Coalition for Equitable Education Funding, the annual allocation of $4 million is not enough. During the hearing, Olsen said, “we stand with the Coalition of Equitable Education Funding and call on the city to shift from a one-year restoration to an annual allocation to sustain arts education and other programs currently on the chopping block.”
The reallocation of funds for arts programs in public schools only covers arts programs for 239 schools across the city, with each school receiving $16,527. Additionally, nearly 1,500 other schools across the city are not receiving any of the money.
Among the requests from organizations to the municipal government, they also ask to ensure a certified arts teacher in every school, increase the per-student cost for arts education, and expand the initial investment to raise the allocation to $6 million.
The claims that Olsen expressed during the hearing are also part of “It Starts with The Arts,” a campaign that was relaunched last month from the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable, urging the mayor and City Council to support arts education funding and improve transparency about how city schools are spending the money and where.
“We cannot allow our students, especially those in underserved communities who rely on public funding for arts access, to suffer from political inaction. The mayor and City Council must invest in arts education ” said Olsen.
Currently, only 3% of the NYCDOE budget is allocated to arts education. Additionally, the terms and conditions passed by the Council last year revealed that during 2020-2023 one in five NYC public schools lacks a certified arts teacher.
“Investing in arts education is an investment in our future. Therefore, I urge our City to take decisive action to ensure that all students have access to high-quality arts education,” said Olsen.