Budget Cuts In Schools

There are many issues facing teachers in schools today, whether it be getting the proper materials, wage, or dealing with unpleasant parents. Music teachers face all these issues but with the added stress of dealing with funds being cut in 80% of school districts (Boyd). If large cuts over the size of a district or even state are to happen, arts and music are usually the most heavily affected as music is considered a “soft skill” and are not considered as important as math, science, and english to school districts and local governments (Yohuru Williams). These budget cuts can bring on many issues with being able to properly educate students in music as they take away from being able to buy new instruments, repair existing ones, and hire people

One major issue in getting funding for music programs is convincing those who run school districts that music is important to student education. Many officials do not immediately see the importance of music education and see it as extra-curricular as compared to the STEM classes and usually when there are budget cuts looming music programs are one the first to be hit (Yohuru Williams). To add to this, many schools also tend to cut music programs not because of lack of funding but because they feel that music takes away from crucial learning time for classes and tests (Barack). This is concerning especially when studies show that overall grades, especially in STEM classes, tend to be higher when someone is involved in music as music tends to work out every part of your brain especially the parts of the brain related to math (Dais). Seeing this, music is clearly an important investment that students need as it serves as a catalyst for the future and grades of the students taking part in it. Music is also a great social break from the monotony of normal classes and allow students to express themselves more than they would in most other classes since music

Unlike choral music teachers who for the most part only have to worry about purchasing music and maybe a piano and some other musical instruments, instrumental teachers have to go and buy dozens or even hundreds of instruments and they also have to pay for the maintenance of them. From talking to Ms. Rivera during my internship in NMUSD in particular the issue is not getting unfunded it is getting the district to realize the prices of taking care of instruments especially for elementary music teachers since they are more prone to damage due to them being handled by elementary school students who tend to be less caring of the instruments and most of the instruments being relatively old. The repair cost for the damage varies by instrument and types of damage but many repairs can be just as or more expensive than getting a new instrument of the cheaper sort (NEMC). She related it to other teachers having to buy new textbooks as they wear out or become outdated. But with most districts the main issue is getting instruments themselves with most instruments costing more than $100 many being closer to $300 with some in the thousands. For example, at Paularino elementary they are currently trying to get the funds necessary to purchase an alto saxophone, the price for a decent new one is around $6000, so they would either have to find