Journey School, a public charter K-8 school, is the only school in Aliso Viejo vying for $50,000 from Clorox’s "Power a Bright Future” grant competition. The school is asking for community support to gain the most votes and win the grant by texting a vote to 95248 with the message 2579pbf every day until voting closes on December 19th.
Parents invite the community to text with them on the last two days of the competition, December 18 and 19, to show support for music education in public school.
Journey School hopes to win having kept a lead in the top 100 among nearly 2,500 schools nominated since November 12th. The grant money would boost funding of their new model for public school music education.
Most public school music programs have been gutted in a short-sighted effort to improve test scores through a narrowed focus on math and language arts instruction. In contrast, Journey School’s model deeply integrates music within the core academics of math, science, history, and language arts rather than teach it as a stand-alone or extracurricular subject.
The school believes, and research shows, that this integration of music and academics keeps students engaged in learning and stimulates brain development in ways that improve both academic performance and emotional intelligence according to Shaheer Faltas, Executive Director of Journey School.
“Thanks to the generosity of California voters who prioritized education by passing Proposition 30, we can get through the school year without layoffs. But to fully fund a program like ours in a tuition-free public school, we need to get creative,” said Faltas. “Winning this grant, with the community’s help, would send a message to our legislators that our citizens value music education not only because its beauty nourishes children’s spirits, but also because academic performance improves more with music in the curriculum than without it.”
Voters, 13 years old and older, may cast two votes every 24 hours. One must be by texting a vote to 95248 with the message 2579pbf and the other online at Journey School’s nomination page at https://powerabrightfuture.clorox.com/nominees/detail/?nid=2579. The deadline to vote for Journey School’s proposal is December 19. There is no additional charge to vote via text beyond normal text messaging charges of individual plans.
