Sue's News

Epic Fail

September 22nd, 2010

School’s back in session, and though it seems like it’s too early for report cards just yet, an interesting one was circulated today by The Americans for the Arts Action Fund. It evaluates our senate leaders in terms of their performance via arts legislation. A tally of their voting was the measure by which the grades were given.

See the report card for yourselves here.

A few things to ponder:

Of the 28 senators who got a failing grade, most were Republican… I’m not making judgments, I’m more interested to know why that is… and hope these senators aren’t just playing to the stereotype.

New York’s senators, home of Broadway, MOMA, the Met, Carnegie Hall… did fantastically well. They obviously know how vital arts are to our economy. How can we spread this to other states/senate leaders so that they get this message as well?

Much of the East Coast senators did well… Is it due to the fact that they are still in close proximity to New York, or that our values in this part of the country are different? (West coast senators also happened to do well, and it’s probably because of their robust film and theatre communities and economies as well.)

But what about the middle states? What are those school aged children learning in the absence of arts legislation and subsequent programming that never sees the light of day because there isn’t any funding to support it?

More than these “failing” senators, it’s their communities, that are suffering.

–Sue

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