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Tell Congress: Museums are Critical Partners in Education
[[Your Name]]
[[Your Address]]
The Honorable XXX XXXX
United States Senate/House
XXXX Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-4601
Dear Senator/Representative XXX:
As you continue work on reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) this year, I urge you to consider the vital contributions museums make to the education of our students.
Did you know that museums often design educational programs in nearly every subject area?
Did you know that museums provide more than 18 million instructional hours annually to students and educators, including educational programming for students, museum staff visits to schools, bringing traveling exhibits into schools, professional development for teachers, and more than 90 million visits each year from school students?
Did you know that museums spend more than $2.2 billion annually on education and the average museum devotes three-quarters of its education budget specifically to K-12 students?
The unique resources and learning environment in museums provide activates students' curiosity and imagination and enriches their comprehension. Unfortunately, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has resulted in school districts devoting more time to reading and math at the expense of other critical subjects. History, art, and science instruction has declined, and, as a result, so have museum visits by schoolchildren - despite museums' ability to reach students in ways that textbooks and classroom instruction cannot. To make matters worse, state budget concerns, fuel costs and other factors are forcing school officials to approve fewer and fewer educational visits to museums.
«[ADD SOME DETAILS ABOUT HOW NCLB HAS AFFECTED YOUR MUSEUM AND ITS ABILITY TO SERVE YOUR COMMUNITY]»
Every day museums like mine are inspiring the next generation of ground-breaking scientists, artists, activists, explorers and history-makers, and I urge you to consider these issues as the reauthorization of ESEA is considered.
Specifically, I urge you to support efforts to promote school-museum partnerships, recognize holders of advanced degrees in museum education as qualified to work directly with students, require greater collaboration between the Department of Education and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and to retain a set of core academic subjects that includes the many subject areas in which museums help teach the curriculum - including English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography. Please let me know if I can provide any additional information about my museum's role in educating our community.
Sincerely,
[[YourName]]
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