Save our Music Programs

The election returns are back from may measures for parcel taxes in the Bay Area to benefit schools.

Bay Area voters were rejecting parcel taxes throughout the region Tuesday that school districts hoped would help preserve music and other programs and maintain small class sizes in the face of declining enrollment and state budget cuts.

-SF Chronicle 3/9/05

When the West Contra Costa County School District decided to disband it's athletics programs due to budget constraints a year ago, everybody came out of the woodwork to save the programs.

Who will come to save the Choir? Or the Band? Let alone AP Music Theory and Orchestra.

And now it begins, we are training a new generation of Americans who will have no clue on what music is outside of what they hear on the radio or see on American Idol. Not that I'm a culture snob, I do appreciate the music I hear on the radio (I just don't watch American Idol), they just don't know what they are missing.

And the symphonies, operas and ballet bitch about dwindling audiences. Audiences for thse things ae built when people are exposed to this kind of music and finally make a connection that it's not as snobby as they perceive. It's harder now when music programs are being slashed to the left and to the right in all levels of public education from kindergarten to college.

The Music Department at CSU, East Bay (that's another name change I have yet to get used to) had 70% of it's operating budget slashed last year.

I'm tired to see how education is ignoring the arts and just concentrating on the basics. Art is what separates us from the Animals. When was the last time you saw a dog paint, or a kangaroo sing?