At Boston's Democratic National Convention, a panel of celebrities, pundits, and politicians talk about music and arts education.

By Rob Hochschild
Berklee.edu Editor
August 10, 2004

Fox host Bill O'Reilly (right) was the lone conservative voice on a panel also featuring, from left, U.S. congresswoman Louise Slaughter, columnist Arianna Huffington, and actor Alan Cumming. Photo by Rob Hochschild

Some of the hottest debate during last month's Democratic National Convention (DNC) took place not at Boston's Fleet Center, where presidential nominee John Kerry delivered his acceptance speech, but at a swanky fitness club in another part of town. While men and women marched up and down on elliptical trainers on one side of a glass partition, conservative pundit Bill O'Reilly was on the other side, squaring off against a phalanx of Hollywood stars, other pundits, and two members of the U.S. House of Representatives on a topic that didn't get a whole lot of play elsewhere at the convention: funding for arts and music education.

The issue wasn't the uppermost platform plank last week, but it proved to be a galvanizing one for nearly 150 people squeezed into what is normally an exercise classroom at the Sports Club/LA. The DNC forum, entitled Arts, Education, and the 21st Century Economy, featured panelists such as O'Reilly, columnist Arianna Huffington, Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), and actress Alfre Woodard, as well as a buzzing audience of celebrities like Bianca Jagger, Jerry Stiller (TV's Seinfeld), Jason Bateman (TV's Arrested Development), and actress Ellen Burstyn, all of whom asked pointed questions during the panel.

"There isn't an investment we make that betters the human condition, the economy, and our future more than what we do in art," said Slaughter, who serves as cochair of the Congressional Arts Caucus. "Believe me, we are not spending enough money. It is a shame."

Cosponsored by The Creative Coalition, the Music for All Foundation, NAMM (the International Music Products Association), and Americans for the Arts, the panel discussion frequently touched on the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act, which some panelists criticized as forcing funding cuts in arts education. Panel moderator Andrew Cuomo, who served in President Bill Clinton's cabinet, said the problem is the law's testing stipulations. While the legislation treats the arts and music as part of a core curriculum, it leaves it out of standardized tests. As a result, he said, money that comes into the school is often earmarked only for math and science because those are the subjects tested under No Child Left Behind.

"Here we are talking, 'Are we going to fund math and science or are we going to fund art?' This is a completely false choice," said Huffington. "The question should be, 'Are we going to close corporate tax loopholes and bring $70 billion into the federal tax paying kitty...or are we going to fund arts and healthcare and all the other priorities?' It's not about how we spend money in the classrooms, it's how we spend money as a nation."

O'Reilly agreed with other panelists that arts education is important but argued that the Bush Administration spends more on public education than the Clinton administration did, and that raising taxes is not the answer to improving the way we teach art and music. "If you think the federal government is going to be able to fund the arts from coast to coast, you're living in a dream world. It ain't gonna happen. It's got to be done locally," O'Reilly said.

Federal Priorities

	Actress and writer Anna Deveare Smith (left), who attended the DNC panel, confers with Alfre Woodard afterward.
	Photo by Rob Hochschild

The funding shortfall was unlikely to go away while the war in Iraq continues, said Slaughter. "As long as we spend $5 billion a month on war, we're not likely to be able to put more money into education," she said.

O'Reilly's eventual reply to that statement drew hisses and boos from the crowd. "We all know why we're fighting this war, even if you disagree with it," he said. "There are people that want to kill us, and you can sing them a song, but they're going to put a bullet right in your head."

There were no musicians on the panel, but Gottfried Schlaug, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, talked about research proving that music education in school has had a wide-ranging positive impact on the whole student. For example, students participating in group music education in school have demonstrated improved performance in math and spelling, he said.

Two solid suggestions on how to counteract the arts education funding problem came from O'Reilly during the panel discussion, but only one of them was embraced, specifically that O'Reilly would consider publicizing the cause on his show, an idea that sprung from a question posed by Jason Bateman.

"I can do a little bit...it's absolutely something that I would want to talk about," O'Reilly said. "What I would need to do it and sell it in an effective way would be a couple of very big names, Hollywood people, most of whom are frightened to death to come onto any type of forum where they would be challenged."

The other suggestion was that well-connected members of the "Hollywood community" band together to create a private fund that could provide money to local schools instead of seeking assistance from the government or taxpayers, he said. But Alfre Woodard quickly dismissed the idea. "To suddenly say Hollywood has the ability to do something we don't have the budget or the authorization to do is passing the buck," she said.

Representative Ford said that more money is needed from the federal government to ensure that children in poor communities receive better education.

"Education...should be funded on the federal level in a big way in coordination with local governments, school teachers, superintendents, and principals," Ford said. "I don't care how many times you can get Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington on TV. That's not going to solve this problem."

At the same time, the panel event did prove that media pay a lot of attention when celebrities speak out on political issues. There were representatives from dozens of media outlets in attendance, including more than 15 film crews.

Making the Case for Music

The founder of the Music for All Foundation, Bob Morrison, also a former Berklee trustee and head of VH1's Save the Music Foundation, said after the panel that such events can help build a case for restoring access to music and arts education. The overarching goal of Music for All, which he launched last year, is to raise awareness about the issue and cause a "societal mindset shift" to ensure a strengthening and stability in arts education.

Morrison hopes to make headway in that plan this month when Music for All releases the results of a study of music program cuts in a state where scores of musicians and entertainers work.

"Over the past five years the eradication of music instruction, specifically in the state of California, has been nothing short of horrifying," Morrison said. "When we release the results of that report, we want to use that as the electroshock therapy to wake the community up to say, 'This is what is happening.' We've got to be proactive and we've got to lay out an agenda to turn around the direction of this trend."

According to Morrison, Berklee can also help raise awareness about the need to better fund arts education.

"I would love to see Berklee take a leading role in speaking out for music and arts education, not only for the gifted and the talented that are going to show up over at Berklee, but for those students that are just going to learn a set of skills that won't just make them successful musicians, but will help make them successful in life," Morrison said.

The morning after the event, Morrison said, the panel cosponsors faxed a letter to O'Reilly with suggested guests to appear on his show. While they awaited his reply, they resumed plans to hold a similar event at next month's Republican National Convention. It'll be interesting to observe how a new set of panelists will tackle the issue in that setting, and what George W. Bush and John Kerry will have to say about it between now and the day Americans vote for president in November.