Why Music Education Didn’t Disappear

Mon, Aug 24 2015 - 6:00pm
Michael Hammond, Music Teacher, Berkeley Public Schools

This program is part of the 2015 Platforum series Music Matters, sponsored by Ernst & Young and the John and Marcia Goldman Foundation.

Under Proposition 13, music education in California elementary schools could have easily disappeared due to the lack of state funding. Fortunately, private funding has stepped up in many communities — for example, Berkeley’s 1986 local tax, the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project (BSEP). Almost $2 million of Berkeley’s funds for music and the visual performing arts came from the BESP this past year. Join us as Michael Hammond, a native of Berkeley’s public schools and current music teacher for the community, tells his stories of teaching music to Berkeley’s newest generation and making music matter in their lives.