El Sistema USA- a Growing Public Policy

This article posted yesterday by on npr.org discusses the formation of El Sistema nucleo in the US. If you don't know what El Sistema is, read the wiki article here. As related to public policy, the most important factor about the original program in Venezuela is that it is entirely government funded. Thus presents the problem in the us.

"El Sistema as it is in Venezuela will never happen in the United States. It's not possible," says Richard Kessler, the executive director of New York City's Center for Arts Education.

"It's not possible for the program to be embraced by the social service and child welfare agencies, and be connected to a national health care system that we don't have. Our government does not fund the arts on that kind of level, on that sort of basis. So what happens is El Sistema has to be translated into something that's American and I think in the translation, generally speaking, it doesn't look very different than many very good youth orchestra programs."

Nuclei are becoming established in major cities all over the country, all at little or no cost to participants. This movement is going across the country- let's all help to keep it going!