One of the cornerstones of President Barack Obama’s Jan. 25 State of the Union speech was his effort to “win the future.” While it’s debatable that a nebulous concept like the future can be, somehow, “won,” a huge directive for this competition is to “win the race to educate our kids.”
“We need to teach our kids that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair,” Obama said. And that’s a good sentiment, but what about the thousands of students at SCAD and art and design schools everywhere? Are students who win art competitions deserving of praise as well?
With states forced to make huge budget cuts, the arts, as usual, are the first on the chopping block. The Georgia Council for the Arts was barely saved from being eliminated all together in spring 2010. Arizona has slashed their arts budget by 60 percent over the last two years, and Kansas and Washington have halved theirs.
According to Obama’s budget, the National Endowment of the Arts’ (NEA) current $167.5 million budget is set to be slashed by 13 percent to $146 million, with representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) calling to slash the NEA’s budget altogether.
Republicans itching to kill arts budgets is nothing new. Newt Gingrich tried to eliminate the NEA back in 1994, and in 1969 Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers himself, had to testify before Congress to fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
But the Republican House is proposing amendments to the current budget to cut everything from federal jobs (“If some of those jobs are lost in this, so be it,” Speaker of the House John Boehner said Feb. 15) to foreign aid. Even House Republicans are proposing slashing the National Science Foundation’s budget by $1.3 billion—while leaving military spending virtually untouched. They are proposing to eliminate the CPB’s budget completely.
More disturbing is the White House’s disregard of these proposed cuts. Slashing the NEA and eliminating the CPB represents about .003 percent of the $2.5 trillion Republicans say their budget will save over 10 years, but is a huge loss to the country as a whole, especially to artists, yet the White House has so far said nothing in the defense of these vital programs. The White House is currently embroiled in debate with Republicans over Obamacare, Social Security and taxes. But for the arts, a vital part of education and development, to be completely ignored, is a slap in the face.
In order to “win the future,” the White House must realize the importance of arts programs. Even if playing the clarinet after school doesn’t create the next generation’s art star, it develops the brain, promotes problem solving and critical thinking and enriches the lives of children, empowering them to “win” in other areas. After all, Leonardo da Vinci’s interest in art didn’t exactly cripple his scientific mind.
If those basic arguments, which have been fought over again and again over the years, don’t convince them, perhaps this will: Robert Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, said nonprofit arts organizations (many of which receive grants and funding from national and state-funded arts programs) support 2.6 million jobs, and “5.7 million jobs when the impact of audience expenditures is counted in.”
Let’s just hope Obama doesn’t capitulate to the Republicans and put those millions of people out of work, especially as SCAD students prepare to enter the job market in the coming years.
