Advocacy Report
By Brittany Elwell
Since this position has not been appointed in previous years, I will take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Brittany E. Neal Elwell and I am currently teaching grades 3- 8 at Loranger Memorial School in Old Orchard Beach. I graduated with a degree in music education from the University of Maine in 2013 and this is my first year as a part of the MMEA board.
Because of the current transition of power most of what ALF has been dealing with over the past few months has been speculation of changes and how to keep arts education a part of a federally-defined well rounded education. NAfME along with the Music Education Policy Roundtable drafted and sent a letter to the Trump / Pence Transition Team that outlines the policy proposals that they hope the Trump administration takes into consideration and / or continues in the coming four years.
However, President Trump ' s chief of staff sent out a memo to federal agencies, ordering an immediate freeze to new rulemaking and a 60-day postponement of finalized regulations that haven ' t taken effect. This will mean a delay on any ESSA regulations. At the Education Department, the directive will delay the Obama administration ' s accountability rule under the Every Student Succeeds Act, which was finalized last November but not slated to take effect until Jan. 30. States must submit plans for ESSA regardless.
In Maine specifically, we are preparing to have an approved plan for ESSA for the 2017-2018 school year. Maine has chose to develop three workgroups for accountability, school improvement and the consolidated application in addition to developing a differentiated tiered system of supports for all schools in Maine.
If you are interested in promoting music in our schools, the NAfME website has some great advocacy guides and resources that you can use in your community. It is important during this transition of power to show lawmakers in every level of government that music education is an integral part of a student’ s learning from elementary school to high school.