Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Seattle Schools Community Forum: A Good Day for Seattle Education

Seattle Schools Community Forum: A Good Day for Seattle Education:


A Good Day for Seattle Education

I just got back from a news conference where it was announced that the City of Seattle will be investing $500,000 in arts education in Seattle Public Schools.  This will advance the already established partnership between the City and SPS called The Creative Advantage.

The goal is one hour of music and one hour of visual arts per week for every single student in SPS by 2020.

The investment dollars came from something of a surprising source - admission tax revenue from the Great Wheel on the waterfront and the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum was higher than expected.  So thank you tourists for those dollars. 

The $500k will be invested over the next two years to start rolling out the planning done under the $1M Wallace Foundation grant.  The Central district will be the first to see some dollars starting next year.  That area was chosen because of already strong partnerships  with community-based arts organizations.   SPS' Carri Campbell said that they would be building out music for every elementary that feeds into Washington Middle School.  She