Senator Coburn has apparently never been in a museum, if he thinks that museums and zoos are the same thing as casinos, big screen televisions, and rotating pastel lights. He introduced an amendment to the stimulus package which is, well, mind-blowing.
From an American Association of Museums Advocacy Alert:
Senate Amendment to Bar Museums From Any Economic Recovery Funds
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has introduced an amendment to prohibit any funds in the economic stimulus bill from going to museums.
The language of the amendment, (Amendment No. 175, as filed) is
"None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, arts center, or highway beautification project, including renovation, remodeling, construction, salaries, furniture, zero-gravity chairs, big screen televisions, beautification, rotating pastel lights, and dry heat saunas."
This amendment may be offered as early as Wednesday, February 4. Call your Senators TODAY and urge them to vote NO on the Coburn "Limitation of Funds Amendment No. 175." To reach your Senators, call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your Senators' offices.
First of all, as a career museum person (disclaimer: I'm on the board of the Media and Technology Standing Professional Committee of AAM), I am utterly offended that Sen. Coburn is suggesting that our cultural heritage and science institutions are only as valuable as rotating pastel lights, zero-gravity chairs, and dry heat saunas. It is clear that Sen. Coburn has never witnessed how children and adults alike have increased their knowledge through interactions and experiences in such types of institutions.
Museums, zoos, aquariums, and other types of informal learning centers are often the only way students are able to learn directly, away from the No Child Left Behind testing centers our nation's public schools have become. Study after study has shown that informal, hands-on, group-based learning environments (ie. museums) directly support formal learning environments (the classroom and rote memorization). Students are able to make direct relationships between the materials presented in a book or by their teacher, to real history, science, or art.
Which begs the question: why are museums being targeted for stimulus in the first place? Museums get their funding from private donations, admissions, and private and government grants (through the NEH, NSF, NEA, and IMLS). They are also supported through their endowments (if they have one). My own museum is suffering significant losses from our endowment, and we're scaling back on programming. Likewise, some museums are closing doors altogether. In addition to losses from the endowment, people are scaling back their spending (reduced admission and gift shop income), private donations are drying up, and there's increased competition for government and private grants.
Just like many other types of non-profits, museums are at a critical stage and many of them are laying off their staff, just to weather the storm. We are just as vulnerable, if not more so, as other types of businesses - why should we not be eligible for stimulus spending, particularly if it comes in the form of government grants?
If we want to continue to have a rich and vibrant culture and a shared knowledge of history, art and sciences, we must continue to support our nation's museums and science centers!
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