Vermont Arts Council urges statewide assessment, enforceable arts benchmarks

Susan Evans McClure, executive director of the Vermont Arts Council, told the Vermont House Education Committee on Thursday, Feb. 3, that the state should conduct a statewide assessment of arts education, adopt minimum standards, and update the Education Quality Standards to include enforceable benchmarks to protect students' access to the arts.

McClure said the Arts Council distributes state, federal and private funds, citing recent grantmaking of about $3,200,000 to 131 individuals and 235 organizations last year, and that demand outstrips supply: "over the past 5 years, we've only been able to support about 45% of the applications that we receive." She described the council's Artist in Schools program, early-childhood grants and training for teaching artists as central to sustaining arts learning across Vermont.

The request for formal data collection was a central part of McClure's presentation. She said the council is partnering with researchers at the University of Vermont and has discussed a statewide assessment with "Secretary Saunders," who McClure described as supportive. McClure said the assessment would catalog arts opportunities both inside schools and from out-of-school partners "because we know those out of school arts partners are filling the gaps in some places." She asked the committee to consider minimum standards to ensure that when cuts occur they do not eliminate foundational arts programming.

McClure cited classroom examples to illustrate educational benefits. Reading a teacher's note about a science-and-dance residency at Grafton Elementary School, she said the teacher reported a reluctant student performed in a culminating show and a student with physical and developmental delays read a poem aloud with support, moving the student’s mother to tears. "What our work funding arts education does really is expand the world for Vermont students and allow them to grow in new ways," McClure said.

Committee members raised concerns about workforce and role expectations for arts teachers. A committee member commented that spreading a teacher across multiple schools reduces face time with students and that rising student mental-health needs sometimes push nonclinical staff into therapeutic roles. McClure acknowledged that arts educators are not mental-health clinicians and said that situation has become "a huge stressor on teachers" when they are expected to substitute for professional mental-health services.

On federal funding, McClure said the National Endowment for the Arts distributes federal funds through state and territorial arts agencies and that the Vermont Arts Council is the state arts agency operating as an independent nonprofit. She described the council's funding mix as requiring a state match and said the organization is preparing scenarios for potential reductions in federal support, adding, "If there are decreases, that will mean there's less funding going to schools to support all the ways that we support."

McClure urged the committee to consider three steps the arts field recommends: (1) fund and carry out a statewide assessment of arts learning opportunities, (2) commit to minimum standards guaranteeing access to arts education, and (3) revise the Education Quality Standards to include enforceable benchmarks for arts education so cuts are limited to programs deemed excessive rather than foundational. She said the council has partnered with the Vermont Music Educators Association and the Vermont Art Educators Association on the proposal.

The presentation concluded with committee members thanking McClure and her student guest for attending; McClure said she would follow up with details about federal funding streams that can support arts learning in schools.