Music Education Week
Nancy Curran, Senator Collins, Sam Moore-Young
MENC/NAfME (National Association for Music Education) held it’s annual National Assembly of state leaders in June as part of Music Education Week in Washington. A major part of the event focused on advocacy at the national, state, and local levels. On June 28th, 90 music education leaders from across the country descended on Capitol Hill to meet with their state Congressional leaders.
The Maine contingency visiting Capitol Hill included Nancy Penna Curran, MMEA President-Elect, and Silvia (Sam) Moore-Young, MMEA Immediate Past President. The two met with a staff member (by video conference) of Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. The staff member was in Portland, Maine but the two felt it was important to meet on the “day” in spite of this. She was very attentive and displayed a general interest to their requests. Next was a visit to the office of Michael Michaud where they were greeted with the same general interest and good note taking by his staff member.
In the late afternoon they had a meeting scheduled with Senator Susan Collins who was presenting on the Senate floor so they held the meeting just outside the Senate chamber. It was very exciting to be able to travel the tunnels and ride the tram with escorts! The staff member who took notes is relatively new to the office so they took the opportunity to communicate the role of music education as a core subject. They also spoke to the Senator and they were encouraged by her interest and attentiveness to continuing support for music.
Their last visit was with the office of Senator Olympia Snowe. They met with a staff member who spoke about her own experieince with music education and she was GREAT. The Senator came in and they exchanged a few personal connections (people we know and are related to), thanked her for her support and gave a quick reminder to keep the arts in our public schools.
They shared a concise message and handouts from the MENC/NAFME advocacy staff. In the next few days they will contact the offices of the Congress people and Senators to thank them for their time and renew the message.
Thank you to Nancy and Sam for provided the information for this blog post.
me arts ed 