Act Now: Performing & Visual Arts for NC K-5 Students

The K-5 Performing and Visual Arts Requirement is currently included in the version of the NC state budget passed by the House of Representatives from a 2025 bipartisan bill sponsored by Rep. Kyle Hall, Rep. Becky Carney, and Rep. Erin Paré. That bill has bipartisan support with 26 total sponsors. Arts North Carolina helped craft this legislation in partnership with Rep. Carney and Arts Education Leadership Coalition member organizations.

The K-5 Performing and Visual Arts Requirement included in the House version of the state budget which would require all NC public school students in grades Kindergarten through Grade 5 to receive:

• Standards based instruction in both Performing and Visual Arts,
• By subject-licensed educators in standard sized classes,
• For 30 minutes once every 5 instructional days for each subject.

Take two minutes to write to your NC state representatives and urge them to support the K-5 Performing and Visual Arts Requirement to empower every North Carolina student for success.

On average in North Carolina 1 out of every 20 K-5 public school students is not enrolled in both Music and Visual Arts1, which equates to thousands of children that are not provided with the same educational opportunities as their peers. Research shows that the arts develop social skills & improve K-5 student outcomes:

• Correlation to improved reading, math, & science for 4th-5th graders.2
• Better interpersonal skills, less anxiety2 and disciplinary infractions.3
• Improved empathy and increased higher education ambitions.3

But how can North Carolina afford this? In 2018, in response to a law that was reducing K-3 class sizes (which required more classroom teachers, leaving less money for Music, Visual Art, P.E, etc.), the NC General Assembly passed SL-2018-2 which provided school districts with funding for one Program Enhancement Teacher or PET (Music, Visual Art, P.E, etc.) for every 191 K-5 students. As of 2023 this allocation for Music, Visual Arts and Physical Education teachers is fully phased in and now equal to over $250 million intended to fund more than 3,800 of these educators.

A vast majority of students attend elementary school in a district with more than 95% of K-5 students enrolled in both Music and Visual Arts. And most students in the districts with less than 95% enrollment in those courses, still go to school in districts with over 90% enrolment in Music and Visual Arts. It is a relatively small number of students in a few districts that are being denied access to arts instruction at a formative and consequential time in their lives. This leaves them less equipped for success than the other 95% of elementary school students statewide.

Small school systems with few students may face some staffing and logistical challenges providing Music and Visual Arts to every K-5 student. However, K-5 Visual and Performing Arts Requirement would empower the State Board of Education and the Department of Public Instruction to assist those districts in finding solutions using the funding that has already been allocated by the General Assembly and fulfil every NC student’s constitutional right to a sound basic education.

1) NC Arts Education Data Project– Source: NC Department of public Instruction. 2) Investigating the Causal Effects of Arts Education by Daniel H. Bowen and Brian Kisida 3) Snapshots of Arts Education in Childhood and Adolescence Office of Research & Analysis, US Department of the Interior, January 2025.

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