The Impact of the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009 on Funding and Staffing for Arts Education in New York City

ABSTRACTThis paper describes how the great recession of 2007 to 2009, in the view of school administrators, impacted funding and teacher availability for education in the Borough of Manhattan of New York City. The study is qualitative and includes data from interviews and surveys completed by school administrators from 13 of the 24 schools designated in Manhattan as Center for Arts Education partners. Administrators showed mixed views on the impact of the recession on budgets during the recession; some perceived a negative impact and others perceived no impact. This parallels actual education funding which went up 5% and down 4% in 2008-09 and 2009-10, respectively. The total City education budget showed no decreases during this time though increases softened. Arts education teacher availability was not impacted in the views of many though some felt there was a negative impact. The greater impact of the Great Recession was perceived to be a negative impact on the ability to gain education funding after the recession. The results show that funding for can be expected to be at great risk for reduction when the economy worsens.INTRODUCTIONAccording to the National Bureau of Economic Research (Bram, Orr, Rich, Rosen and Song, 2009), the United States entered into an economic recession in December 2007. Later in the fall of 2008, the condition of the U.S. economy rapidly deteriorated; but then finally leveled off in July 2009 (Bram, et al., 2009). The crisis that led to the country's economic downturn was the collapse and failure of several of the biggest financial institutions in the U.S. including Bear Steams, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual and American International Group (AIG), plus the unforeseeable difficulties in the automobile industry (Billiteri, 2008).During this economic crisis, the state and local government sectors across the nation scrambled to fill budget gaps by reducing their funding expenditures. To accomplish this task, states and local administrations responded by implementing certain measures, such as increasing tax rates, drawing down reserves and/or cutting entitlement programs, which included education - particularly education programs.The economic downturn led to a massive reduction in spending by the publicly funded school districts, which resulted in lay-offs of thousands of teachers and support staff plus the partial elimination of school curriculums (Coddington, 2010). The problem within the public school districts is the decline of their education programs. In many cases, programs were among the first to go (Coddington, 2010). As Fowler has reiterated (1989, p. 92), all too often, are assigned the lowest priority. While the majority of Federal recession relief funds went to help the education sector, at nearly 75 percent, the funding priority went to math, reading, writing and other subjects while funding for education declined (Norton, 2008).REVIEW OF THE LITERATUREAccording to Remer (2010, p.81), arts education has always been difficult to define, perhaps now more than ever. To complicate the matter further, labels such as as education, in education, for education, aesthetic education, for integration and for learning disarrange the landscape (Remer, 2010). With different tags attached to the concept, the question for educators is how to present an intriguing argument that will embrace what education is.Heilbum and Gray (2001) have echoed the four perennial views of Charles Fowler's (1988) argument in his book entitled, Can We Rescue the Arts for America 's Children? First, there is no agreement as to which art discipline should be taught. The list includes dance, drama, design, film, creative writing, poetry, and assorted craft. What should be offered? Second, there is a question of who ought to teach the classes. Should they be taught by the classroom teacher or an art specialist? …