Music is the universal language of mankind

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Studies prove time and time again that there is a definitive relationship between music education and academic achievement. Despite these facts, it is a heartbreaking truth that the first area cut in school budgets is the arts. In one year alone, a staggering $1.2 billion has been pulled from public school music programs nationwide.

Music Crossing Borders is on a mission to bring music back to our children, around the corner and around the world!

The Proof Is In The Numbers:

Schools with music programs have graduation rates of 90.2 percent, as compared with a 72.9 percent rate for schools without music education.

Schools with music programs have attendance rates of 93.3 percent, compared with 84.9 percent for those that don't.

2006 Harris Interactive poll of high school principals funded by the National Association for Music Education and International Music Products Association (NAMM)

Hear What Others Have To Say:

"Music education opens doors that help children pass from school into the world around them – a world of work, culture, intellectual activity, and human involvement. The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music."

- Gerald Ford, Former President, United States of America

"Education in the arts is a force that fosters cross-cultural understanding. [It] is not a luxury but rather a necessity."

- Mary Futrell, president of the National Education Association in April 1989, quoted in Charles Fowler, "Recognizing the Role of Artistic Intelligences", September 1990, Music Education Journal. pp 26-27

"Arts education is just as important as education in the academic core subjects of reading, mathematics, history and science. The arts are a part of a well-rounded education that exposes students to the richness of learning that includes textbooks and online research, meaningful hands-on experiences and creative endeavors. Research in how the brain functions has taught us that there are parts of the brain activated by music and the arts. In fact, experience in the arts accelerates learning in other areas. Children who are having difficulty in mathematics benefit from studying spatial relationships associated with learning to read music. Students who have difficulty reading textbooks benefit from reading the words to a song during choral music instruction. Arts education exposes children to the richness of our human capabilities. Children who are fortunate enough to receive arts education respond in ways that demonstrate their potential for artistic endeavor. The arts draw out our ability to understand our life's journey and to appreciate the beauty in ourselves and in our world".

- "Superintendant's Corner; Standing up for arts education" by Maria Ott, superintendant of Rowland Unified School District, CA from the San Gabriel Tribune, May 16, 2010

"In addition to giving our children the science and math skills they need to compete in the new global context, we should also encourage the ability to think creatively that comes from a meaningful arts education."

- Barack Obama

"We hear much about communication in the twenty-first century. Music is not only one of the oldest, but certainly one of the best forms of communication. It defines our humanness. It speaks to us directly, heart to heart, soul to soul, when at times words do not suffice. By offering music and the other arts in the school curriculum, we are enriching the lives of students as we endeavor to preserve our culture as our civilization. We are including a sense of discipline and respect and channeling energies into forms of self-expression that have a positive social impact. It is a strange phenomenon that the student who spends hours with the arts is also the student who excels in science, math, and other subjects in the academic curriculum. Rather than diminish appropriation in our schools for music and art programs, we should study carefully the reasons why there is a correlation between the arts and academic achievement. Every child, from primary through secondary school, deserves the opportunity to study music."

- David Bruceck (Jazz musician, composer) The Gifts of Music (MENC, 1994)

"Music has the power of producing a certain effect on the moral character of the soul, and if it has the power to do this, it is clear that the young must be directed to music and must be educated in it."

- Aristotle, Politics

"I have said many times – if I hadn't been exposed to music as a child I don't think I would have been president."

- Bill Clinton "Bill Clinton and Bono reveal how music changed their lives." Niall O'Dowd, Irish Central, May 7, 2010.

Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without

-Confucius