E D U C AT I O N
A MILLION DOLLAR INVESTMENT IN EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE BY JOSEPH S.H. ROGERS
W
hen you were young, were you ever asked: “what would you do if you had a million dollars?” When I was 8 years old, I think I said that I would buy a big house, a boat,or superpowers (after all, Batman and the Green Arrow bought most of their powers). Regardless, it was a question that I left for idle thoughts about winning the lottery that I never played or the discovery of some rich, longlost relatives who passed away and left their fortune to me. So, after months of presenting our case to the Virginia Department of Education and the General Assembly, I was delighted to learn that the Museum had received a $1 million appropriation in Virginia’s 8
WINTER/SPRING 2021
Midlothian High School teachers sharing a work day and virtual tour at the ACWM with Joseph Rogers.
2020 budget. For more than a year, staff and board members worked with policymakers on the idea of Virginia financially supporting the Museum’s mission to serve the Commonwealth’s students and educators. We demonstrated both the impact current offerings had with students and educators and also highlighted the possibilities of expanded funding. With state approval, the new funds made museum admission and programming (both in-person and online) free for all Virginia K-12 public school students and educators for the duration of the funding period. With all of the planning, the timing
of this money provided a tremendous opportunity – and a great responsibility. We received the funding at a time that COVID-19 was forcing schools to reimagine educational experiences and to chart their courses amid great uncertainty. As we talked with our educator colleagues, our team quickly and creatively transformed our programs. We launched the first Homefront Education video in March to support learning for homebound students and educators, including parents who found themselves as teachers in classrooms at home. By using the programs already developed and by adapting them for digital teaching, we utilized a newly essential
