RA Action:

News from the NEA Annual Meeting

July 5, 2007

Huckabee: Don’t sacrifice music and art

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, the only Republican presidential candidate to address the NEA, got a warm welcome from delegates. “I’m astonished there are not more Republican candidates here,” Huckabee said. “Do they not think education is important? Or are they just afraid of the NEA? I don’t know.”

Watch a video clip of Huckabee's speech.

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said said music and art should be taught at every grade level. RA Today photo by Rick Runion

While most Republican candidates are focusing on national security, “radical Islamic jihadism is not the only threat to America ’s future,” he cautioned. “If we do not have an educated young America coming forward, we will not have any kind of security.”

A product of Arkansas public schools, Huckabee told delegates he was the first male in his family to graduate from high school, and the first governor of Arkansas in 50 years to send his own children to public schools from grades 1 through 12.

When he became governor, Arkansas educators were among the lowest paid in the country, Huckabee said, but when he left office, they ranked among the highest paid, taking into account the state’s per capita income. He said teachers should be compensated for professional development and recognized as “the most vital profession.”

Recalling the time he begged his parents for an electric guitar at the age of 11, Huckabee stressed the importance of art and music education. “I’d like to tell you I became a rock star,” he said, “but I would never have made it to be governor had it not been for the skills that I learned from music.”

Music and art should be taught at every grade level, he said. Huckabee also proposed what he called “personalized” learning in which students could help plan their own programs. For example, a student could get PE credit for karate classes, and music credit for playing in a rock band – all without extra paperwork for teachers. Huckabee’s sister, a teacher, warned him, “If you do one thing that adds one more page of paperwork to my life, I’m coming after you!”