Public Funding Should Not Support Public Schools in Music and Arts

In today’s school systems, art and music classes are not mandatory to be taught. This makes them very vulnerable to budget cuts in struggling schools. It is estimated that more than eighty percent of schools nationwide have experienced cuts to their budgets since 2008 (Metla). Every child in America deserves a complete education, and a complete education includes the arts. Due to budget cuts, many students do not receive instruction in art and music and therefore do not receive a full education. Music and art classes in schools are just as important as core classes and should not be subject to budget cuts.

As the final addition to this social issue, Laredo charter and public schools have become victims of this change in not implementing music into their curriculum. This issue particularly narrows its intended audience to the United Independent School District, and how the district is not doing an exceptional job in contributing to student’s performance in school. Students in class performance have suffered greatly, grades from exams are constantly failing, and greater budget cuts are being made to fix the problem in adding more mathematics, history, and science courses. Not only does this apply to elementary schools, but also middle schools, high schools, and even the college systems in Laredo being greatly affected. Authors Jamey Kelley and Steven

Central Idea: The government should not cut music programs in public schools because they are beneficial to children, not only to their education, but also helps express themselves.

Throughout history music has played an important role in society, whether it was Mozart moving people with his newest opera or the latest album from the Beatles. Where would society be today without music? With schools cutting their music programs, the next Mozart may not get his chance to discover his amazing talent. Music programs are essential to education. To fully understand this one must understand how music helps the human body, why schools have cut music programs, and why people should learn music.

Elementary schools and high schools across the U.S. have lately suffered from financial strain. Because of this, budget cuts have to be made and music programs often suffer before sports and academics. Although some people believe that music is not a key component in preparing for employment and higher education, yet several others express otherwise, who say music has been shown to stimulate other parts of a student’s mind that can help them excel. Statistics have shown that the correlation between music class and other academia is not only positive for students, but also can improve future scholastic abilities, and thus should not be cut from schools. Through the evaluation of various sources

Cutting music and art programs creates a large gap between opportunities for wealther children and lower class children. Children whose parents do not have the financial means to afford private art and music lessions have a greater disadvantage because they do not have the opportunities and resources to cultivate their talents. They could be the next Picasso, but because they did not have the means to express their genius and cultivate their talent, it never gets discovered. Only a very few lucky children will be able to prosper in their talents. Schools should provide another means of art and music classes. For instance, they could have clubs where children

Silence. This is what many people would hear if they walked into just one of the many music halls in a school whom has cut their music program. Many schools across the nation are suffering from severe budget cuts, and sadly music is far too often the first on the list to go. Music in the American public school system is often a way for students to express themselves and develop a sense of pride and devotion by being a musician. Yet, music education has been proven to improve young students’ cognitive capabilities, music programs are still being cut from the curriculum in schools across the nation. Funding, nation testing standards, availability, and participation are major factors whether a program may or may not stay in American classrooms, which demonstrates America’s destructive need for results from students to be tangible at the expense of the enjoyment of students.

“I get that music programs are under intense pressure, that all across America they are sitting hunched over with one nervous eye on a hooded figure stalking the halls with a big budgetary ax”, states Peter Greene. It has become common today to dismiss music’s contribution to the field of education. In the article “Stop Defending Music Education”, written by Peter Greene, the issue if obvious. What the issue is whether or not public schools should teach music and art, since so many students are below proficient levels in “more basic” subjects like reading and math.

The decline in music education programs in public schools is a result of budget cuts is becoming more visible. State-level arts spending has dropped from $409 million in the fiscal year 2002 to $354.5 million in the fiscal year 2003, and declined again to $272.4 million in 2004 (“Quick Facts”). It is clearly

Much too often in America today, modern music and art programs in schools are perceived to many as extracurricular activities rather than important subjects that are vital to a students learning and skill development. The truth of the matter is that encouraging music and art education in public schools has a much larger impact on student’s grades, academic performance, and the economy than the majority people realize. Within the next year city school budgets will be dropping by twenty five percent, and despite the fact that music and art programs have been showing a dramatic contribution to student’s learning, this substantial drop in funding for the programs will lead to no dedicated money for art or music programs (Mezzacappa). There is

A Mathematician’ Lament by Paul Lockhart, demonstrates a musician has woken up from a nightmare and his dream was about how the community is being forced to have music education. It brings many theories and analysis in the “language of music”, which makes the educators to be more curios to listen or play music. This leads to more advance topics to train students in the primary and secondary school, as it creates more opportunities to improve in school. As Lockhart, said “Most of them couldn’t care less about how important music is in today’s world; I guess there are just music people and non-music people”; as the musician realizes that the society will never remove a beautiful art form, just like mathematics. But, today in our culture, doesn’t let the students to have a curiosity

There are multiple reasons of why the educational system needs an arts and music department. From elementary to high school students an arts education has been beneficial to the

Cercone goes into detail on how studies have shown that music classes benefit a child’s learning process, test scores, and other areas of academic study. These support her argument and are all facts that her readers cannot properly disagree with. Cercone discusses how attitude and academics depend on one another to enhance a student’s learning and she goes one step further in explaining how this goes on in the music classroom, strengthening her thesis.

The issue/concern that I am bringing forth in my Capstone project deals with public education. More specifically, music education in secondary school within the public school system. In recent years, the arts have not been the priority in regards to funding and what our youth needs in terms of preparation for the real world. This is partially due to instituting ideas like NCLB (No Child Left Behind) to focus on just the essentials for children to learn. In the academic world, one may refer to this as essentialism in education. As a result, the arts have viewed as not something that is essential. My case originated from my own personal experiences as a music educator and seeing growth from music students.

”Painting, writing, orchestra, band, choir these programs are the so-called money wasting according to the government. Some governments believe that if they take these programs away their budget will be more. They said they have done tests and evidence that shows how it does effect of course there is statistics and finances that show that. However, you cannot really base something we are born with based on a test. The Arts is a compelling thing some people are born with it some are not. It would not be fair to the kids who struggle in the core subjects like math and reading the kids who do not well let me tell you, you are lucky. Those kids are confident in the math and reading the kids who are not they feel ashamed of themselves that they cannot get a certain concept.