Why Not Cut From the Top?

Friday, January 21, 2011

Page 15

AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)

Why Not Cut From the Top?

By J’AMY PACHECO

When my family decided to relocate last year, we looked for a new home only after carefully studying, and then selecting, a school district.

The move was extraordinarily tough on our middle school-aged daughter, who had been popular at her old school but ate lunch alone for almost two months after the move. Eventually, she auditioned for a school play, got a part and made friends at the first rehearsal. I can say without hesitation that the school’s drama program changed her life.

She started high school a few months ago, and was fortunate to be placed in an intermediate choir class. I was lucky enough to get to observe some behind-the-scenes interaction between the teacher and her students when I volunteered to work as a ticket seller on performance nights.

This teacher works with hundreds of students in five choirs ranging from beginning to advanced. She spends time after school working with additional volunteer choirs, and even started an amazing afterschool hand-bell choir this year.

Watching her work filled me with admiration for her efforts, and confidence in the futures of the students she’s turning out. She demands of them hard work, promptness, courtesy and respect. She inspires and uplifts them with a motivational talk before each performance. Her older students affectionately call her “Mama.”

For the final number of each performance, all of the choirs sing together. There are so many students that the stage is filled; students line up in front of the stage and all the way down both sides of the aisle. During the holiday performances in December, even former students came to join in.

As the students sang a song titled, “Believe,” I sat in the audience and cried. Observing the petite teacher seated at a piano, surrounded by all of her choirs, I marveled at the positive impact she’s having on so many youths at such a developmentally important stage of their lives.

I support our public schools. I’ve been volunteering since my daughter lugged her Barbie backpack into kindergarten, and I still help out whenever I can. I know our schools aren’t perfect, but I’ve also encountered some educators, like the choir teacher, who have had a profound impact on my daughter’s life. I’ve observed how hard teachers work, and how much they sacrifice for their students. I recognize that if there’s one critical element to education, it’s teachers.

So you can imagine my distress when, hours after somebody in a position of authority told me that pending cuts to our local school district would be kept as far from the classroom as possible, I discovered our local district has to make more budget cuts, and that one of them will be to arts programs.

Maybe I’m biased because my dad’s name is Art, but that announcement made me want to throw some tea into the harbor. Since I live in a landlocked community, that’s not an option. So I’m writing this instead.

It’s time to stop taking money from our kids.

I didn’t vote for him, but I was impressed to read that our new governor started his term by cracking down on taxpayer-funded cell phones in state government. That’s a great start, and it got me thinking—is he doing the same thing with other expenses, like credit cards, personal phone calls, work-time Internet usage, and vehicles?

A few months ago, I was parked outside my daughter’s school waiting for the release bell to ring. In front of me was an official CalTrans car, which sat at the curb as long as I did. I didn’t give it any thought until some kids got in the car, and I realized the driver was picking his children up from school in a taxpayer-funded car.

Why are we paying for that, but forcing districts to put arts education on the chopping block?

I suspect there is a lot of waste in government, and I’m tired of paying for it—particularly when it comes at the expense of our kids. More taxes aren’t the answer — I think somebody needs to look at government expenditures as ruthlessly as our schools are having to look at their budgets.

Our state needs to educate its children, and that education needs to be well-rounded. Effective teachers need to be kept safe, whether it’s in the geometry classroom, or on stage surrounded by student singers.

Don’t cut the arts. Cut the waste. Do that successfully, and our kids will have something to sing about.