Asa Hutchinson: “I believe those local schools in rural communities across our States and all across this country have a much more…”

“I believe those local schools in rural communities across our States and all across this country have a much more legitimate claim to those funds than where those funds have gone under the current status quo of the NEA. I grew up in a town with a population, when I lived there, of 894. I can remember in junior high school it being one of the great thrills when we were able to take a field trip 40 miles to the University of Arkansas and watch a Shakespearean play. That is the first time I had ever seen a Shakespearean play. Those kind of opportunities to the small communities of this country would be increased so much if we eliminated the Washington bureaucracy and allowed that money to flow back to the States. The objectionable art, Senator Sessions, that you cited yesterday, that Senator Helms spent a great deal of time on, that has characterized much of the debate around the NEA in recent years--if a local arts council, the State arts council, or State legislature or Governor made a decision to fund something that the mass of the people found highly objectionable, I guarantee you they will be more responsible in that State legislature or that State arts council, or that Governor will be far more responsive to the complaints of the people than a faraway bureaucracy in Washington, DC, in some ivory tower making those decisions.”