Jersey Jazzman reviews the many songs that have been contenders for our national anthem.
God Bless America?
This Land Is Your Land?
America the Beautiful?
My Country ‘Tis of Thee?
And more.
Seems we will stick with The Star Spangled Banner, even though many can’t remember the lyrics or hit the notes.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We do the National Anthem in Ab, and I insist that young children never try to sing the opening phrase (and its like phrases) very loudly at all, if they can even get down there. By making tall vowels, young voices should have little trouble with “glare” and “free.” It’s part of their training to be able to navigate these parts of the range. Always warm up and stretch before singing this song. Another issue is tempo–most people perform it too slow, thus many singers labor over every part.
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Each one of those selections is inspirational and for the ideal America.
The national anthem for THIS country is really “Money” by Pink Floyd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCOb4fTrzZc
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Another reason for not having the Star Spangled Banner as our national anthem is Francis Scott Key’s history as a slave owner who used his position as a lawyer to fight against and suppress those who opposed slavery.
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And another reason to have music in school—many kids would not learn or be exposed to these songs if not but for public school music. (So far it is not on the chopping block in NC, but from what I have read on this blog it seems it may be in other places).
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