Editor's note: In assembling this issue, I sought to compile compelling stories of arts education cuts and the responses of local communities. I invited National Council on the Arts member Dr. Bruce Carter to share such a story. The following article begins with Carter's narrativized account of informal research on the arts partnership in the Chula Vista Elementary School District in Chula Vista, California. Following this, Nancy Roucher, chair of the Arts Education Task Force of the Arts & Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County and co-chair of the Community/Schools Partnership for the Arts, shares a story from Sarasota, Florida.