Letters, Marco Eagle, Sept. 6
National Arts in Education Week
National Arts In Education Week was designated by Congress in 2010. House Resolution 275 names the week beginning with the second Sunday in September as National Arts in Education Week. During this week, the field of arts education and its supporters join together in communities across the country to tell the story of the transformative power of the arts in education.
Our municipal, education, and state leaders need to know about the impact the arts have on young peoples' lives and that they must support the arts in every district and every school in America. For decades, research has shown that when students participate in the arts as a part of their education, they go on succeed in school, work and life.
In 2016, in Washington, D.C., the new Every Student Succeeds Act was signed into law - replacing no Child Left Behind. This new bill fully supports the arts as part of every students' "well-rounded" education. It provides the flexibility for students to learn creatively and for local districts and states to create schools that embrace the arts. What we know is simple: students attend school more often when they have access to the arts, parents and families engage with the schools when schools embrace the arts, dropout rates decrease, grades increase - and the halls are filled with artwork, songs, drama and dancing.
And, I'm not alone in this belief. According to a recent public opinion poll, released in March, 9 out of 10 Americans believe that the arts are essential to a student's well rounded education.
However, so often we see that access is not there in communities across our state and the country. In that same public opinion poll, 67 percent of Americans believed that there was not sufficient access to the arts for their students to reap the benefits. Additionally, there is study after study that indicate the opportunity gap in arts education, specifically along racial and socio-economic lines. We must stand together to fight for equity in access and delivery of arts education to the young people in our community our state, and the nation.
As we celebrate National Arts in Education Week, we should also consider the work we have to do. How can our district help provide equitable opportunities for all of our young people? How can we use the new law to create arts-rich schools? How can we support parents, families and the community in provide more opportunities for engagement? It's up to us to ensure that the arts are an integral part of every child’s education.
Executive Director, Marco Island Center for the Arts
Better use for money
Election postcards, now bulletin-board size, arrived daily.
Why so many? It’s obnoxious and shameful. It only alienated the voters.
Do candidates realize how much the YMCA and Mackle Park could use some of their campaign money? They take care of our children all year.
Candidates, don’t you feel guilty?
We the people are being betrayed. We’ve been betrayed by both Republicans and Democrats we’ve elected. They have not done what’s best for the country or what they’ve promised. Instead, they’ve enriched themselves via bribes from lobbyists and myriad special privileges.
They will do anything to get re-elected and remain in what has become a privileged, ruling class. They thrive on the warfare and rancor between the parties because it distracts the partisan electorate from their corruption and lies and betrayals.
We individual voters have virtually no representation. We seem to be too apathetic or uninformed or self-centered to comprehend that we are responsible for allowing this to persist.
Obviously, we will not have a Constitution if we continue to ignore it.
Obviously, we will not have an economy if the government continues borrowing $4 billion a day. Obviously, if interest rates weren’t manipulated, the interest on a $20 trillion national debt could consume most of our annual tax revenue.
Obviously, we’re virtually bankrupt with additional trillions of unfunded liabilities. A major depression and the destruction of the dollar are clear and present dangers.
What would we do if suddenly all investments valued in dollars became worthless? Obviously, there would be unparalleled anarchy and perhaps a total breakdown of our civilization. Obviously, this is not the legacy we desire for our progeny, yet we’re the voters who will decide their fate, and perhaps our own.
In this election cycle, we should become Americans first, and recognize that Donald Trump is far more likely to do what is necessary to mend our sinking ship of state than another undistinguished career politician who has betrayed us more than most.
Robert A. Strohaver