WEBINAR RECAP | APRIL 7, 2026
The Decision Has Already Been Made
By the time a school board votes to cut a music program, the real decision is often months old. It happened quietly — in a department budget request in December, a preliminary discussion in January, a superintendent’s recommendation in April. By the time parents and teachers find out, there are three days left to respond.
That was one of the clearest messages from the Music IS Education Coalition’s April webinar, which brought together national and local experts to help advocates understand how school budgets actually work — and how to engage before it’s too late.
“It didn’t start three days ago. This started months ago.” — Bob Morrison
The April 7 session drew advocates, music educators, and community leaders from across the country for a deep dive into school funding — from the federal level all the way to the local school budget line items where music education either appears, or quietly disappears.
Who Pays for Public Education — and Why It Matters
Chris Duncombe, a principal at the Education Commission of the States (ECS), opened with a foundational reality check: school funding in America is radically decentralized, and that variation has direct consequences for music programs everywhere.
The federal government contributes roughly seven to nine percent of school revenue on average. The bulk — more than 90 percent — comes from state and local sources. That means the decisions being made in your state capitol and your school board chamber matter enormously.
And those decisions are wildly uneven. Consider: New York spends approximately three times as much per student as Idaho. Even after adjusting for cost-of-living differences, two-thirds of that gap comes down to policy choices — not geography, not economics. Choices made by elected officials and school boards.
Duncombe also flagged a trend that every music advocate should be watching: state general fund spending, which grew at historic rates in 2021 and 2022, is projected to be essentially flat in 2026. Tighter budgets mean harder choices — and arts programs are often among the first to face them.
There’s an additional pressure point on the horizon. The federal reconciliation package passed last year — the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — includes changes to Medicaid and SNAP that will phase in over time. As states absorb a larger share of those costs, analysts are watching closely to see how much it will crowd out available dollars for K-12 education.
On the legislative side, Duncombe highlighted three areas where states have been most active: reforming funding formulas (Alabama’s RAISE Act committed $165 million in new formula funding in its first year), rethinking how students are identified for funding purposes (New Mexico’s innovative family income index), and investing in teacher recruitment and starting pay (Montana’s STARS Act). These are the levers that get pulled — and advocates who understand them can engage more effectively.
Asking the Right Questions — at the Right Time
Rosie Grant, Executive Director of the Paterson Education Fund in New Jersey, brought the 30,000-foot federal view all the way down to a 720-page district budget for a city of 25,000 students. Her message: music education is almost never labeled as such in a school budget. If you’re looking for a line item that says “music,” you won’t find it. What you’ll find are salary codes, benefit accounts, and supply allocations — and you have to know how to read them.
But Grant didn’t stop at how to read a budget. She introduced participants to the Right Question Strategy — a research-backed framework developed in Lawrence, Massachusetts, that has been used by parents in school board meetings, budget hearings, and a wide range of advocacy settings. The core idea is both simple and powerful: instead of making statements, ask questions. Open-ended ones.
“Can you help me understand how my child will have the same music and arts opportunities as students in surrounding school districts without budget priority supporting the arts?”
That question — offered by a participant during the live session — earned an immediate response from Grant: “My work is done. That’s a great question.” It’s the kind of question that invites the decision-maker to engage rather than deflect, and educates everyone in the room who is listening.
Grant’s advice for sustained impact went beyond any single meeting: show up consistently, build relationships year-round, lead with thank-yous and congratulations, and don’t wait until the crisis arrives. School board meetings are open to the public — you don’t need to be an employee of the district to attend, speak, and be heard.
Wins Worth Celebrating
Jazzmone Sutton of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) brought some well-earned good news. In Louisiana, a state seal of Fine Arts passed the House unanimously and is now moving to the Senate. In Delaware, a certificate of arts excellence has cleared the House and is advancing as well.
These wins matter beyond their borders. State seals and certificates create data — and data enables storytelling. Once a seal is in place, states can begin tracking which students are achieving high expectations in music and arts. And once there is data, advocates can tell the stories that move the next round of legislation.
If you have contacts in Louisiana or Delaware, now is the time to reach out and encourage them to contact their state senators in support of these bills.
Your Next Step
A wise man once said: one action is worth 1,000 conferences. So what’s yours?
Here are the concrete steps you can take right now:
- Download the Monitoring the School Budget Process guide at musiciseducation.org (under Local Advocacy). Don’t wait for a budget crisis — start tracking now.
- Use Karl B, the Coalition’s free AI advocacy assistant, to prepare for school board meetings, draft testimony, write letters to legislators, or practice conversations with skeptical decision-makers. Find Karl on the homepage at musiciseducation.org.
- Contact your members of Congress using the link shared in the webinar to advocate for sustained federal support for arts and music education.
- Review the federal funding overview on the Coalition website to understand how Title I, Title II, and Title IV funds can be used to support music and arts education in your district.
- Mark your calendar: the next Music IS Education Coalition webinar is Thursday, May 7, 2026. Register at musiciseducation.org.
- NAMM’s legislative fly-in is May 10–14, 2026, in Washington, D.C. — an opportunity to bring your advocacy voice directly to Capitol Hill.
Budget decisions that shape music education happen on a timeline most advocates don’t see until it’s too late. This webinar was a reminder — and a roadmap — for how to change that. The tools are there. The community is here. What’s your next step?
Music IS Education is a national coalition supporting state and local music education advocacy. Learn more and access all Coalition resources at musiciseducation.org.