The Music Stand Foundation Mission Statement
The Music Stand Foundation supports consistent delivery of sequential, standards-based music education programs with credentialed music educators. The Foundation provides an opportunity for ongoing discussions for revising budget allocation methodologies for music education programs in California public school districts. The Foundation also supports development of curriculua for general, choral, and instrumental music education in areas such as creative music, theater, composition, and technology education and resources for K-12 students.
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The Music Stand Foundation Vision Statement
The efforts of The Music Stand Foundation support the development of budget allocation methodologies for K-12 music education funding that are sustainable and consistent over time.
The Music Stand Foundation is about finding a better way to consistenly fund the cost of music education, as consistently as we pay a superintendent's salary.
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Letter from Lisa Crawford, Founder/President (January 2012)
It has been suggested that The Music Stand Foundation is a head-on undertaking. It is meant to be nothing less. The impetus for founding The Music Stand Foundation in 2005 was a response to the beginnings of severe budget cuts in the state of California just as arts and music were receiving block grants from the governor. This was coupled with growing up with a music supervisor father who spent his life in public school music and who earned his doctorate in music education when I was between the ages of nine and twelve. He left his position for a bit because of Proposition 13 but returned later to music teaching and I remember the printing and distribution of thousands of advocacy fliers.
While we want to send a positive message about music education and that, even though there are budgetary issues throughout the states, music education in public schools is highly valued, by all constituents, but herein lies a point of discussion. If programs are removed, then replaced, then removed again, might we stop, take a moment, and design a new structure for music education budgets in school districts so that the fluctuation stops? The exciting part is that everyone wants students to have music education! There are many reasons to have music education-- and one of the main ones is that K-12 public school classrooms is one of the only ways to provide ALL students consistent delivery of music education early in life.
I was the recipient of excellent music education in the public schools I attended. Teaching piano by the age of twelve, I began piano lessons at age four, composing by age 7, and flute and clarinet from third grade on. I experienced incredible public school music education programs, band, orchestra, chorus, jazz band, and marching band through both middle and high school. Since observing a music teacher dad and through my adult life, I notice nothing has changed about the pendulum swings of public school music funding issues and many excellent music programs are effectively presenting programs of all kinds.
When The Music Stand Foundation was initially formed, I hoped that my fundraising experience for entertainment and technology companies would support what I was learning about public policy and that I could address the fact that few district budgets ever show line items for music education. When I was first becoming aware of this, I was earning masters degrees at University of the Pacific working under the direction of Dr. Ruth Brittin. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing in school district budgets. My real education about this issue came through evaluating how California lottery dollars actually trickle down to music education as promised in their website marketing materials. Dr. Brittin was extremely supportive of that initial inquiry.
Three years ago, I began looking for conversations that would have occurred between school districts and state credentialing systems here in California and our private universities, UCs, and CSUs. In California, the initial pressure from California Music Teachers Association (http://www.mtac.org/history/index.shtml) was strong at the turn of the century. Bills failed here in getting music teachers paid during school time as they are now. I have had some pretty great digging help at the California Department of Education and somehow, we don't find evidence of any conversation in the first half of the 20th century about how school districts were to take on the pressure of music education teacher salaries-- no wonder we still have trouble in this area! It is time to go to the MENC archives and see what I can find there. Also, I invite any evidence that I can include in this research project from you who read this.
Our response to all of this from the past six years as the MSF mission and vision have quietly been allowed to shift and settle, is the California Music Education Funding Summit. We are hoping the first one will happen this coming October 2012. It is a conversation for everyone from university music education professors, school district administrators, finance and education minds, students, K-12 principals, and whomever wishes to have a voice in this. I should not be surprised by the overwhelming response of those wishing to participate and, from a variety of environments.
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In 2008, Profiles in Caring came and talked with Lisa Crawford about keeping music education in the school district she was teaching in. Find their discussion with her here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCfHUHTLmcE
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