150-Plus Schools Have No Arts Teacher

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The New York Sun

The Department of Education spent about $259 million on arts education last year, but more than one in 10 schools does not have a full-time arts educator.


At a hearing of the City Council’s Education Committee yesterday, the school official in charge of arts education, Sharon Dunn, could not say how much money would be needed to put a teacher in every classroom and deliver a good arts program to all students.


About 153 schools are without an educator dedicated to the arts, an improvement over last year when that number was closer to 200.


Ms. Dunn said the city was making “great strides” and cheered this administration for making arts education a priority.


That did little to gratify the chairwoman of the Education Committee, Eva Moskowitz, who pressed the city to provide a full-time teacher in every school in less than three years. She said they also needed to establish a system to assess the quality of what’s being taught.


The problem for arts education dates back to the budget crisis of the 1970s, when arts money was slashed from the city budget. Teachers were laid off, and many education schools cut their art teacher training programs because there was no place for their graduates to go.


Currently, there are 2,343 licensed art teachers across the city, including 124 dedicated to dance and another 136 teaching theater.


Ms. Dunn said that the Bronx was probably the least-served borough in terms of arts programs.


The New York Sun

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