With many state legislatures in session this spring and education issues front and center, now is a crucial time to get involved and pay attention to proposed legislation. Each state has arts organizations that follow pending legislation and will organize members to bring attention to arts related issues. Here in Texas some of those statewide organizations include: Texans for the Arts, Texas Cultural Trust (look for the bill tracker on their website), and the Texas Arts Education Campaign. We encourage everyone to join fellow advocates to ensure all our voices are heard. When it comes to legislative advocacy, numbers really do count! The more constituents our legislators hear from the more they listen!
Parents for Arts Education is a non-partisan organization that looks to encourage, support and advocate for anyone who is bringing the benefits of fine arts education to children of any age and in any educational setting. We are not a political action group but do want to show parents ways they can encourage, support and advocate for programs in their communities. Our leaders have some hard choices when it comes to funding programs. We want to ensure they hear from not only lobbyists but those of us living in their districts that value the vast benefits to strong fine arts education. I have participated in several advocacy events and worked to bring the parent voice into the conversation on a statewide level. However, it’s important that all of us get involved and share our student’s experiences with fine arts education to decision makers at the local, state and national level to ensure the programs are available to future generations.
Go to our resource section on our website to find links to some of these organizations and feel free to contact us to add more.