Creative Challenge Index Reported Favorably by Education Committee
Jan. 17, 2008
Dear Friends,
We are pleased to announce that House Bill 393, an act to establish a commission to create the Creative Challenge Index was favorably released by the Joint Education Committee. We thank House Chair Rep. Patricia Haddad (D-Somerset) and Senate Chair Senator Robert Antonioni (D-Leominster) for recognizing the value of creative work in our schools including arts education.
We also thank the House sponsors of the bill Rep. Dan Bosley (D-N. Adams), Rep. Denis E. Guyer (D-Dalton), Rep. Ellen Story (D-Amherst), Rep. Alice Hanlon Peisch (D-Wellesley), Rep. Alice K. Wolf (D-Cambridge), Rep. Steven M. Walsh (D-Lynn) and Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez (D-Brookline).
The Creative Challenge Index bill now moves to the Joint Committee on Joint Rules. MAASH will be working with the bill sponsors to move the bill to a vote on the floor of the House.
Rep. Dan Bosley, Chairman of the House Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, lead sponsor of the bill, said "The Creative Challenge Index will establish incentives for schools to foster creative skills through arts education and other creative educational opportunities."
Anita Walker, executive director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, said, "We are excited to see this innovative piece of legislation move forward. Once in place, the Creative Challenge Index will help put Massachusetts in a leadership position in developing creative minds for the creative economy."
Dan Hunter added, "Creativity and innovation must be a Massachusetts priority-in our schools, in our businesses and in our communities."
