The Current Occupant recently replaced artists with loyalists on the Kennedy Center for the Arts governing board and installed himself as chairman. This tracks: Suppression of the arts is a standard anti-democracy move. Lenin and Mao scrubbed “bourgeois” art from public spaces and imprisoned artists. Putin has done the same. Art shows us others’ perspectives and connects us by illuminating our shared human experience. Authoritarians like us uninformed and divided.

Efforts to restrict people’s access to art have been stealthier in New Hampshire, but when Rep. Dan McGuire (R) proposed HB283, which would do away with high standards for public schools, including arts requirements, he gave away the game. Vouchers are skimming millions of dollars from public schools, forcing districts to choose between higher property taxes and program cuts, and arts are usually the first to go. Meanwhile, EFAs subsidize private and religious schools’ arts programs because, as the Brewster Academy ad states, “the arts are an important part of learning, [so] we require all students to take courses in the arts.”

We can’t do much right now about what’s happened at the Kennedy Center or U.S. Department of Education, but we can refuse to allow our pockets to be picked and our public schools deprived of high-quality education here. 30,000 people spoke out against HB283 in person and online, and it was killed in committee by a vote of 18-0. We must do the same for this session’s pro-voucher bills.

Jean Lewandowski

Nashua