Sponsors (4)
The bill expands access to standards‑based arts and music education and funds for educators and materials in Title I schools—benefiting student engagement and arts employment—but does so at the risk of added costs, administrative complexity, uneven statewide implementation, and potential diversion of limited Title I funds from core academic supports.
Title I students (including those in targeted-assistance and schoolwide programs) gain expanded access to sequential, standards‑based arts and music education (dance, media arts, theater, visual arts, music) that can be used to meet State academic standards.
Certified arts and music educators and community arts providers will see increased employment and teaching opportunities plus funding for professional development, improving instructional quality and supporting specialized instruction.
Schools can use federal Title I/ESEA resources to purchase instruments, supplies, technology, and other classroom resources for arts and music, lowering local budget pressure for these materials.
State and local education agencies may face increased staffing, certification, and professional development costs to hire qualified arts and music teachers, raising local and state education expenditures (and potential taxpayer burden).
Allowing Title I funds to be used for arts and music risks diverting limited resources away from core academic interventions (e.g., reading and math remediation) that high-need students rely on.
Defining 'certified arts/music educators' at the State level creates potential variability in qualification standards, producing uneven access and quality of arts instruction across districts and states.
Based on analysis of 10 sections of legislative text.
Requires and authorizes Title I schoolwide and targeted assistance programs to include sequential, standards‑based arts and music education and allows funds for certified educators, PD, supplies, and instruments.
Adds arts and music explicitly to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) school programs by requiring and authorizing sequential, standards‑based arts and music instruction in Title I schoolwide plans and allowing targeted assistance funds to be used for music instruction. It defines “arts” to include dance, media arts, theater, and visual arts, and permits programmatic support for certified arts and music educators, professional development, supplies, instruments, sheet music, and related instructional expenses. The bill clarifies allowable uses of existing ESEA program funds but does not itself appropriate new money.
Introduced March 5, 2026 by Cory Anthony Booker · Last progress March 5, 2026