A Letter to the US Congressional Delegations from my State.
June 2, 2025
Brenda Pugh McCutchen
While I support government efficiency, I do not support government abolishment. While curtailing governmental waste is laudable, the national budget must be kept within reason and be responsibly managed to assure that the national programs– which do work efficiently and are responsibly managed–are preserved so the heritage and identity of this country remain strong across America …and the world.
Please do not “throw the baby out with the bath water.” Leadership is needed to ensure that what is vital to this country is upheld.
The cultural organizations (National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Public Radio) and the National Parks System must remain intact to preserve the educational, recreational, and cultural benefits they exponentially provide to all Americans, no matter which state an individual lives in. These national entities achieve a standard of excellence which cannot be met equally by all their individual states’ counterparts. (It would be a egregious mistake to send those funds directly to the states to manage without the national guidance of the stellar agencies which are in place and have been refined decade by decade into solidly appreciated agencies with the bipartisan support of the US Congress.
The benefits from each of these agencies far out-weigh the national funds they receive and in many cases “vet” to discern the highest quality programs they will send to the states. In that regard, they assure the best state programs are funded to achieve the most value for the expenditure. Moreover, the states are not equipped to provide the leadership or quality achieved by these four organizations. The states provide for each state’s specific priorities (with flow-through funds from these national organizations). But the larger, more unifying and meaningful projects in America require the leadership from these national organizations that benefit all Americans and take civilization forward.
I am a native South Carolinian who is educated, visionary, reasonable, a business-owner, the author of a leading college textbook in my field. I worked in the US Senate Offices in Washington during the Johnson administration in the 1960s. Not only do I proudly support my state and received an excellent education thanks to standards set forth at the national level, but I also revere my country for its high educational, cultural, and natural preservation standards of leadership.
Please consider the parallel of not funding the US Congress and sending all the legislative national tax dollars to the state legislatures to do the work of the “united states” (The USA). Congress is called to preserve the national trust. That is vastly different from what each individual state is called to do. The states do their part to preserve each individual state’s trust in order for Congress to be able to rise to the higher level of preserving the national trust and the common good for all. You are there to preserve the United States government and make reasoned decisions. You are there to also preserve the arts, the heritage, the national parks, and the national public broadcasting organization– all of which provide far greater benefit than their cost in the national budget.
I request your leadership in the US Congress to voice your support of these four national entities for all of these, and multiple other reasons.
In the same light please consider the damage to America in the short and long-term that would be caused by the abolishment of the United States Department of Education which sets the standards for the country. Proposed budgetary cuts go too far and should be rethought by those who are elected to represent their constituents across America, and in this case, in South Carolina. I send deep appreciation for all you do and the responsibility you shoulder for those of us in South Carolina
Sincerely,
Ms. Brenda Pugh McCutchen
June 2, 2025
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Brenda Pugh McCutchen is the author of Teaching Dance as Art in Education, a foundations text for dance teacher preparation in higher education (2006: Human Kinetics). As a retired associate professor of dance and state-level arts education administrator, she creates literacy-based “teacher effectiveness materials” to promote education in and about the art of dance at all levels from K-12 through graduate schools.