The Georgia Council for the Arts today released the recommendations from Governor Deal's Arts Learning Task Force to address the loss of arts education in recent years.
Music, fine arts and other arts classes suffered under the Great Recession, with massive cuts to school budgets forcing school districts to make tough choices about where to spent money. Systems have cut or eliminated arts programs entirely.
The task force appointed by the Governor in 2014, was asked to make recommendations that will prepare Georgia’s public schools to improve overall educational achievement through arts offerings.
It came up with recommendations that map a pathway to increased student achievement and underscore the necessity of collaboration among public sector, private sector and the education community. The recommendations range in scope from actions which may be relatively simple to implement to those which will require significant time, resources and difficult policy changes.
To augment the recommendations, Georgia Council for the Arts also released its arts education study titled, Arts Education in Georgia: Public School Data and Principal Perspectives. This report relies on the data collected at the state and regional levels by South Arts and provides a deeper analysis of access to arts education in Georgia's K-12 public schools.
“We are grateful to the members of the Arts Learning Task Force for their tireless research, analysis of best practices and commitment to improving education through arts learning in Georgia,” said Karen Paty, executive director of Georgia Council for the Arts. “Their recommendations are informed, comprehensive and provide great promise for the role of the arts in education.”
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