Federal Arts Funding: Response

I just received the following response from the Department of Education to my email of May 19th.
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From: Geddes, Claire [mailto:Claire.Geddes@ed.gov]
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 10:49 AM
To: 'jim@igetitmusic.com'
Subject: US Department of Education response to your inquiry

June 9, 2009

Dear Mr. Plamondon:

Thank you for your letter to Secretary Duncan indicating your concern about the inclusion of arts education technology research in the Institute of Education Sciences’ (IES) research initiatives. Your letter has been sent to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement for a response and I have been asked to respond.

It is encouraging to hear from people such as yourself who have definitive ideas about arts education research and its applications. I encourage you to share your ideas on arts education research and instruction with local educators and community leaders.

The research in your JIMS program demonstrates your dedication to arts education technology research and to students. The Department of Education funds several arts education grant programs, and reports from these programs indicate that students who participate in the arts are students who typically do well in reading and math. The Institute of Education Sciences oversees the research initiatives you inquire about. Their website can be found at the following address: http://ies.ed.gov/.

Again, thank you for sharing your concerns with us.

Sincerely,

Edith Harvey
Director
Improvement Programs

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I'd hoped for more -- including, perhaps, actual answers to my direct questions -- but the above is perhaps the best I could reasonably have expected: a boilerplate non-response.

For example, consider the last two sentences of the above response:

The Institute of Education Sciences oversees the research initiatives you inquire about. Their website can be found at the following address: http://ies.ed.gov/.

These sentences make it clear that my email was not read with any care, as my email's second sentence stated that:

I have copied Dr. Jonathan Levy, Program Officer for the Institute for Educational Sciences’ research programs into Education Technology and Cognition and Student Learning, on this email. According to the IES’ website...

...which makes it obvious that I was already aware of the Institute of Education Sciences and its website to which the response draws my attention. Indeed, it is the specific policies described on that website which were the basis of the questions raised in my email.

To give the DoEd the benefit of the doubt, though, the ideal person to respond to my policy inquiry is the Director of the IES, John Q. Easton. I didn't address my email to him because his nomination was not confirmed until after I sent my policy inquiry, and he didn't start with the IES until June 1st, so I appreciate having someone else answer my inquiry in the meantime.

I will respond to the DoEd's response shortly.