Hasta La Gadget!

American teenagers are not excelling in the arts, and President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts will likely make matters worse, experts say.

The most recent results of a wide-ranging national educational assessment known as the Nation’s Report Card left significant room for improvement in the visual arts and music, the National Center for Education Statistics reported Tuesday.

Students scored an average 147 in music and 149 in visual arts on a scale of 300, dipping very slightly from 2008, when the test was last administered. A sample of 8,800 eighth-grade students from public and private schools participated in the 2016 National Assessment of American Progress, which evaluates comprehension based on a series of questions and original work. 

The NCES found students’ lack of access to arts education significantly contributed to their underwhelming scores. Students who took art classes or music lessons inside and/or outside of school, visited museums, or attended theater performances generally scored better on the test.

“If students take more courses in these areas and also have engagement [in the arts] outside of school, they tend to do better,” said Peggy Carr, the acting commissioner for the NCES.  

To illustrate the benefits of increased arts education, Carr pointed to the narrowing score gap between white and Hispanic students, whose participation in arts activities both inside and outside of school rose from 2008 to 2016 along with their scores.

But as overall scores remain stagnant, Trump is preparing to bulldoze key pathways to arts education for some of the country’s most underserved populations. His budget proposal includes axing 19 publicly funded bodies, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Despite public backlash, the White House has stood by its proposed budget.

“Look, we’re not going to ask you for your hard-earned money anymore … unless we can guarantee that money will be used in a proper function,” White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said last month during a news briefing. “That is about as compassionate as you can get.”

For hundreds of students in Providence, Rhode Island, local nonprofit CityArts provides their only exposure to arts education. While the organization receives some funding through the NEA, the bulk of their school-based arts integration initiatives are made possible by AmeriCorps ― a civil society and service agency housed under the CNCS.

Vanessa DeNino, the director of CityArts’ AmeriCorps programs, said Trump’s budget proposal would “detrimentally impact” the number of children they can serve, likely cutting off access to arts education for more than 700 students.

Providence’s Delsesto Middle School employs just two full-time art teachers for roughly 900 students. CityArts helps fill in the gaps by installing an additional two AmeriCorps teaching artists in the classrooms.

Eliminating CNCS funding “would basically cut the number of art teachers at Delsesto Middle School in half,” said CityArts executive director Nancy Safian. “I’m really concerned about school culture. I think that when there’s a strong arts presence in a school there tends to be a more positive school climate and a bigger sense of community.”

The arts expand horizons and opportunities. They have economic value and are a cornerstone to cultural tourism.
Lydia Black, Alliance for the Arts

In fiscal year 2015, NEA grants reached every county in the country. Many state and local arts organizations depend on federal funding to sustain accessible arts programs throughout the country ― not just in major metropolitan areas.

“The people who are performing lower in rural communities are also going to be impacted because that support is being taken away from them, too,” DeNino said.

Students in the Northeast performed relatively higher than other regions of the U.S., including the South, where some of the lowest score were recorded.

Lydia Black is the executive director for the Alliance for the Arts in southwest Florida. Her organization serves Lee County, where roughly 16 percent of individuals live below poverty level, and offers a wide variety of youth arts programming, including spring, summer and winter camps. The Alliance recently received a $10,000 grant from the NEA to help fund their annual family arts festival.

“We are seeing from the top administration of the United States, the lack of interest in telling [this country’s] story,” Black said. “Most countries have a division of cultural affairs from the national level, and so the NEA really fulfills that role. I think it would be a real shame to lose the NEA’s ability to tell the story of the United States.”

Dennis Inhulsen, chief learning officer at the National Arts Education Association, worries the budget cuts could weaken American students’ competitive edge internationally.

“Students are not achieving, at least according to the assessment, as well as they should,” said Inhulsen. “You can’t say we want a well-rounded student for the 21st century in college and career readiness and then really reduce programs and offerings for kids. It makes no sense.”

“We just don’t like the idea, frankly, of children not being exposed to the arts,” Inhulsen said. “It’s just not what we could call a world-class education.”

Art advocates have noted that the NEA and NEH’s $148 million budgets account for a fraction of 1 percent of the budget, yet provide access to thousands of arts education programs as well as funding for museum exhibits and galleries, which could also bolster students’ ability to perform better on arts assessments.

Artistic ability isn’t the only area subject to improvement. Studies show how increased access to arts education can lead to better grades and higher rates of graduation and college enrollment.

Safian said her staff interviewed parents before and after their children enrolled in CityArts programming. Roughly 65 percent believed their children’s grades had improved since joining CityArts and nearly 90 percent said their children seemed happier at school.

“The fact that the parents perceive their children are doing better in school and that they are enjoying school more is significant,” Safian said.

Arts education benefits aren’t limited to academic performance; they can also positively affect behavior and decrease disciplinary referrals. Black said children who participate in Alliance’s art camps become more open-minded about diversity and other communities.

“There is a return on investment in the dollar spent [on youth arts programs],” Black said. “The arts expand horizons and opportunities. They have economic value and are a cornerstone to cultural tourism.”

“We’re not just developing artists and musicians,” Black said. “Arts can be used to solve environmental challenges. They can be used to solve conflicts. They’re a way to communicate.”

The fate of Trump’s proposed budget ― and our nation’s cultural agencies ― is now in the hands of Congress. While the House and Senate are ruled by Republicans, there has historically been bipartisan support of the NEA and NEH.

The fiscal year 2018 budget is set to take effect on Oct. 1.

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“Mum, it’s like everyone wants to be autistic like me now!” my 8-year-old daughter announced as she came out of school on Monday.

She was referring to the latest “craze” for the fidget spinner in her school (and it seems every other school in the country). Suddenly it was “cool” to want to fidget, and if you didn’t have the must-have fidget toy, you were somehow the odd one out.

It did somewhat amuse me to think that after an entire month of autism awareness all it actually took to make autism “cool” was a little handheld plastic and metal spinner!

So does having what is marketed and made as a fidget toy for those with autism and ADHD become a huge international craze benefit those with autism or not?

It has certainly seems to have made my daughter less stressed and self-conscious about her need to “stim” at school. Previously it was rather obvious in her mainstream classroom which children had autism or ADHD as they had access to special cushions, stress balls and tangle toys to help them concentrate or remain calm. While others were shouted at for fidgeting a select few were allowed to “play” with these items at the teacher’s discretion. Having a fidget toy was something only children with a diagnosed condition were supposed to want or need.

Now suddenly that has all changed.

While this has the advantage of making children with autism feel more included and less isolated, perhaps even “cool,” it also has some negative effects too.

How do you decide which children are wanting a fidget toy and which children really need it? Should schools allow all children opportunity to fidget and “play” in order to enhance concentration and productivity or are fidget toys actually a huge distraction in the classroom setting?After all the manufacturers never set out for the toy to be used so casually by so many and it was in fact designed as a stress release for the autism/ADHD market. When school decide to ban sensory and fidget toys they risk isolating the very children they spend years trying to include.

I am loving seeing my daughter play together with children in her class with a toy she is confident in and comfortable with. It is rare for a craze to include her as she is usually socially unaware of what others are doing, so to see her included of her own doing is beautiful. I love that the world is now seeing sensory and fidget play as “normal” and not something to be mocked or frowned upon. I love that the current “in thing” is now readily available in shops everywhere and very inexpensive. It requires no language and little skill so everyone can join in.

But I worry too. I worry that schools are quick to react and ban everyone from using fidget spinners just because they are so popular. I worry that when everyone else moves on my daughter will be the one left standing alone still spinning her little hand held plastic spinner by the school gate once again ignored by her peers. I worry that people will see her as just “playing” like everyone else and forget that for some these fidget items are a necessary stress release and stim.

Time will tell how long this latest trend lasts. For now though I can see my daughter’s point. It really is like everyone suddenly wants to be autistic. I am watching with interest in the hope this has a positive impact for awareness and acceptance of not just my daughter but the rest of the autistic population too.

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Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), an outspoken critic of gun violence since the Sandy Hook massacre took place in his home state, ignored President Donald Trump’s remarks to the National Rifle Association on Friday.

Instead of listening to the president, Murphy put his focus on victims of gun violence, tweeting out photos of people killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School; in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado; on the streets of Chicago; and more.

Murphy posted 11 photos of gun violence victims. Many were killed in shootings that made national headlines, like Alison Parker, a news reporter who was shot and killed on live television in 2015.

Murphy noted that 90 percent of Americans have said they would support expanded background checks for gun buyers, reflecting the overwhelming support many polls have shown in the years since the Sandy Hook massacre.

See more on Murphy’s Twitter feed.

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Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) said on Friday that he had restored voting rights to more people in his state than any other governor in American history.

McAuliffe’s office said in a statement the governor had restored voting rights to 156,000 eligible people. The previous record, set by the administration of former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (D) was 155,000.

Virginia is one of a handful of states where voting rights can only be restored by the governor or a court. Last year, McAuliffe signed an executive order restoring voting rights to 200,000 former felons, but the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that he could not issue such a broad blanket order. The court ruled that he could only restore the rights on a case-by-case basis, and McAuliffe pledged to restore the rights of the 200,000 people individually.

“Expanding democracy in Virginia has been my proudest achievement during my time as Governor,” McAuliffe said in a statement. “Over the course of the last year, I have had the privilege to meet with many of the men and women affected by this order, and their stories inspired us as we continued this fight against the hostile opponents of progress. The Virginians whose rights we have restored are our friends and neighbors.

“They are living in our communities, raising families, paying taxes, and sending their children to our schools. Restoring their voting rights once they have served their time does not pardon their crimes or restore their firearm rights, but it provides them with a meaningful second chance through full citizenship.”

“We are grateful for Governor McAuliffe’s leadership in expanding our democracy,” said Tram Nguyen, co-executive director of New Virginia Majority, a progressive advocacy group in the state that has been lobbying for restoration rights for years. “Restoring these basic civil rights has profoundly transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Virginians who are able to more fully participate in their communities.”

A spokeswoman for former Florida Gov. Crist, who is now serving in Congress, said he wasn’t upset at all the record was broken.

“I know my boss would congratulate Governor McAuliffe on the work he’s doing in his state, as well,” said Erin Moffet, the spokeswoman.

Critics of felon disenfranchisement laws argue that they are a vestige of the Jim Crow South and that they disproportionately affect African-Americans. In 2014, The Sentencing Project, a policy reform campaign, estimated that one in five African-Americans were disenfranchised due to a felony conviction in the age of mass incarceration.

In Florida, the state Supreme Court recently signed off on language for a possible 2018 ballot measure that would amend the state constitution to automatically restore voting rights to former felons after they complete their sentences, probation or parole. Twenty-one percent of Florida’s African-American voting age population can’t vote because state law strips them of the right unless they get clemency from the governor.

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After arming herself with baked goods, it looks like Ivanka Trump might finally be on better terms with her new neighbors. 

The Financial Times reported Thursday that the first daughter made amends with people in Kalorama, a prestigious neighborhood in Washington, D.C., by going door to door with her kids and some baked treats. According to a once-”wary” neighbor interviewed by the FT, it worked out well. 

“Lovely, just lovely,” Rhona Friedman said of Trump. “People who know her say the same thing: that she’s very gracious.” 

On Thursday, her husband Jared Kushner and two of the couple’s children, Arabella and Joseph, were photographed handing out treats to Secret Service agents outside their house. 

When Ivanka and Kushner moved to Kalorama, residents were not happy about it.

“It has been a three-ring circus from the day that they’ve moved in,’’ Marietta Robinson, a neighbor who lived across from the couple and their three kids, told the Associated Press at the time. Other neighbors complained about the closed sidewalks, parking troubles and trash cans that were left outside their house.

Ivanka was apparently unaware of the controversy a few months ago, when she issued a statement to the AP saying, “We love the neighborhood and our family has received an incredibly gracious welcome from our neighbors.” 

It seems like things have mostly been patched up for now, though no word on how Trump’s beloved “petty neighbor” feels about the baked goods: 

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