MusicianCorps?

NPR reports on an initiative to bring an army of music teachers to underprivileged schools which seems to be catching the ear of the Obama transition team:

MusicianCorps would be similar to AmeriCorps--in exchange for a year or two of service teaching in schools and after-school programs, musicians would get health care and a living stipend. Kiff Gallagher [the developer of the program] has the attention of Obama's transition team.

He also has the attention of private industry--the Hewlett Foundation gave MusicianCorps a $500,000 grant for a pilot program in the San Francisco Bay Area.

During the campaign, he served on Obama's National Arts Policy Committee. His idea has been endorsed by prominent economists and educators--even former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. The Aspen Institute named MusicianCorps one of the 10 nonprofit policy proposals that would strengthen U.S. communities.

Mike Blakeslee, who heads the National Association for Music Education, see pros and cons to the MusicianCorps idea. He says there is a shortage of music teachers primarily in the low-income school districts that MusicianCorps would target. But he also says it takes years of on-the-job training to become an effective music teacher.

For now, the MusicianCorps program calls for a summer training program. And Blakeslee thinks that may not be enough.

"Because in addition to being able to navigate the bureaucracy of schools and deal with discipline issues, lack of facilities--a music teacher has to be a good musician, too," Blakeslee says.