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If you missed our Facebook Live Discussion Series, I encourage you to check them out on our Youtube channel – particularly the discussion that involved arts education.
Legislative Update
The legislative session is in full swing at the State House. As of the writing of this update, the first version of the budget bill is on the House floor ready to be debated. This budget includes a total increase of $1.5 Million for Statewide arts funding.
Learn more about the initial budget requests here.
Once it passes the House, it will head to the Senate Finance Committee, who will draft their own version of the budget. If your legislator serves on this committee, you can support these efforts by contacting them and asking them to support an increase in arts funding.
We’re also keeping our eyes on the Educator Assistance Act, which recently passed the SC House and is awaiting a hearing in the Senate. This bill is a huge step forward in addressing many of the professional challenges facing educators, so we encourage you to contact your State Senator to ask them to support it.
In Washington, Congress passed another continuing resolution in late December, and they now have until March 14th to reach an agreement on the FY2025 Budget. While no final bills have been passed yet, the Senate Appropriations committee has currently proposed a funding increase. Congressional leaders in the House have indicated that they support matching the Senate funding in the final version.
You can contact your members of Congress and encourage them to support the NEA here.
I encourage you to become a FREE member of the SCAA alerted as both budgets progress, and check out all of the free advocacy resources on our website, scartsalliance.com/advocacy.
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