Georgia Dept of Ed Dedicates $70,000 to Expand Fine Arts Education in Seven Rural Schools

The Georgia Department of Education is awarding a total of $70,000 to rural school districts to help them expand the fine arts opportunities available to their students, the fourth round of such funding, State School Superintendent Richard Woods announced Friday.

Seven rural schools are receiving stART grants, which can be used to create or expand arts initiatives that significantly improve students’ access to the arts. The grant is aligned to GaDOE’s Roadmap to Reimagining K-12 Education, which calls for setting the expectation that every child, in every part of the state, has access to a well-rounded education – including the fine arts.

This is the fourth round of funding provided through the grants; the first round was awarded in 2018, the second in 2019, and the third in 2020.

“Every child in every part of our state deserves access to a well-rounded education, including access to high-quality arts education,” Superintendent Woods said. “Students learn skills to help them solve problems, make decisions, think creatively, and articulate a vision through fine arts. Additionally, students gain self-esteem and self-discipline through arts classes. Through stART grant funding, more rural districts can extend fine arts education opportunities to more children.”

Through the stART grants, GaDOE is taking advantage of the flexibility offered within the Every Student Succeeds Act to use some federal funds to support arts learning and other programs that provide a well-rounded education to students.

GaDOE continues to expand fine arts instruction through the Fine Arts program at the state level – including enhancing virtual fine arts courses, refreshing standards, increasing the number of creative-industry-aligned high school arts courses, offering professional learning on arts content for arts teachers and arts integration for teachers of all content areas, creating an online Professional Learning Community for fine arts teachers, and developing an Arts Integration Seal of Excellence Award for schools and a Fine Arts Diploma Seal for graduates.

All eligible school districts were given the opportunity to apply for the stART grant funding. For the purposes of the grant, a rural school district is any district currently eligible for funding under the federal Rural Education Achievement Program.