CAA News Today

Doug Lederman at Inside Higher Ed has been following the higher-education component of the current economic-stimulus bills in the US House of Representatives and Senate. The Senate version of the bill, which will be voted on today, has cut several earmarks for education that passed in the House legislation. Also, $50 million earmarked by the House for the National Endowment for the Arts was eliminated by the Senate. If the Senate passes its bill, Congress will work with the Obama administration to reconcile the two different stimulus packages. Read Lederman’s article from yesterday for more details and a breakdown of what’s included and excluded in both bills.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight argued last week for economic stimulus for the nation’s arts nonprofit organizations: “I suspect every one of America’s nonprofits has at least one unfunded project that it would like to get going—‘shovel-ready,’ as it were, even if the job doesn’t involve bricks and mortar.” Chris Jones at the Chicago Tribune also makes a case for the importance of arts in economic-stimulus legislation.