Sigma Alpha Iota

Spring 2020 4 PAN PIPES MUSIC EDUCATION NAfME Hill Day TMEA leadership, NAfME leadership, and Tennessee collegiate students meet with a representative from Lamar Alexander 's office. T his past summer, I had the opportunity to represent the state of Tennessee at our nation's capital to advocate for music education to the policy makers on Capital Hill. I was honored to receive an SAI Professional Education Development Grant in order to attend the National Association for Music Education (NAf ME) Hill Day. NAf ME Hill Day is a time for current and future music educators to rally together and lobby our senators and representatives about why music education is important in American education. Each state Music Education Association (MEA) brings their state leaders as well as a select group of collegiate students to meet with U.S. Representatives and Senators in order to advocate for the full support of music education legislation currently on the table. I attended as a collegiate student, despite having just recently graduated from the University of Tennessee at Martin with my Bachelors in Music Education. e Tennessee Music Education Association (TMEA) chose four collegiate students to attend the conference this year and represent the voices of future music educators from our state. e role of the collegiate student at Hill Day is to share their personal story with policy makers about how music education has impacted their lives and why they believe it is important. Sharing stories of personal experiences with music education opens the door to talk about specific pieces of legislation that are included in NAf ME's legislative agenda. We asked policy makers to fully fund the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) for FY2020. is included Title IV- Part A, which supports access to music education as a part of a well-rounded education; Title I-Part A, which supports music access to children in the most disadvantaged schools; and Title I-Part A, Title II-Part A, and Title IV-Part A, which supports the professional development of music educators. State MEA's also asked for co-sponsors of the Guarantee Access To Arts and Music Education (GAAME) Act, which would further clarify and recognize that it is permissible for Title I-Part A dollars to be used to increase student accessibility to a quality music education. Lastly, we asked for our representatives and senators to approve the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965. e reauthorization would allow for loan forgiveness of all well-rounded subjects, which includes music educators who currently do not receive loan forgiveness, as well as continue to offer professional development resources for music educators. TMEA's leadership and collegiate members had the opportunity to meet with a staff member of Senator Lamar Alexander, Representative Phil Roe, a staff member of Representative David Kustoff, and a staff member of Representative Jim Cooper. e conversations we shared with these individuals were all very upliing. We were able compare stories of how music had impacted their lives as

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