Media Toolkit

This News Media Toolkit has been developed to help you get local news coverage of the activities and accomplishments of students in your music program. This is part of an effort to increase awareness of the many benefits of music education in our schools. Our goal is to build support for music education among parents, administrators, school boards and legislators to ensure the continuation and possible expansion of music programs.

We want to enlist your assistance in this important statewide effort and encourage you to seek more news coverage by your local newspapers, radio stations, television stations, web sites and any other media that provide information to the public in your community.

It is vitally important to remember that every contact you have with the news media is an opportunity to promote the wide variety of benefits that music education provides not only to students but also to our schools, communities and our state.

Here is the basic message we hope to communicate to the public and policy makers: Music education in our schools helps Texas attain its education goals by improving overall academic performance and making students better prepared for college and careers.

We want to convince policy makers that music is not an isolated segment of education but an integral and important part of a successful education system and contributes to broader objectives such as improving student achievement, reducing dropout rates, increasing economic opportunities, making our communities more livable and expanding the state’s economy.

We hope you will assist us in this effort to give Texans a better understanding of how music education benefits our schools, our communities and our state. If we are successful in this effort, it will help assure that music education receives the priority and the support it needs and deserves in our education system.

Please put the information included in this toolkit to good use in your community and help us build a strong future for music education in Texas.