This paper expresses the need for the federal government, specifically the U.S. Office of Education, to promote the cause of the arts in education. The Office of Education needs to declare that art is an essential part of the common core of education, particularly at this time, when there is growing skepticism concerning the effectiveness of public education. As part of the core curriculum, the arts (1) give expression to the urgings of the human spirit, validate feelings, organize perceptions, and give coherence to existence; (2) serve as powerful affective and cognitive teaching tools; and (3) serve as a self-renewing resource in a world growing increasingly barren in natural resources. Plans to link education with federal agencies which have programs in the arts are outlined by Mr. Boyer, present chairman of the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. (KC)