Commentary from Senator Sakamoto

April 4 , 2007

Supporting Arts in Our Schools

On March 26, the Honolulu Advertiser published the article: "Integrating the Arts."  It quoted Marilyn Cristofori, CEO of the Hawaii Arts Alliance, who noted "art education has dwindled since No Child Left Behind came along."

Although the No Child Left Behind Act has admirable goals, it has caused many schools to narrow their focus to the "basics" and neglect other subjects that are important like the arts: visual arts, dance, music, and theater.  We introduced two concurrent resolutions (SCR 57 and SCR 112) that call for reforming the No Child Left Behind Act in order to bring a more balanced and sensible approach to education.