How do you calculate the value of a kid learning to play a musical instrument in school?
Parents and teachers say you can’t put a price tag on the intangible benefits—a student’s discovery of music, the self-confidence that comes from playing an instrument and being part of a band.
That’s why dozens showed up at Monday night’s Board of Education meeting in Rockville, angry that Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jerry Weast has proposed eliminating four of the 37 instrumental teaching positions in county schools. The cut is included on Weast’s list of reductions totaling $45 million should the County Council not fund his budget proposal.
Cutting four music teachers would just save $260,000—less than one percent of MCPS’s proposed $2.2 billion budget for fiscal 2012. Yet, the cut would be devastating, supporters say, doubling the size of beginners’ classes in elementary school and making necessary hands-on instruction impossible.
Why, supporters wanted to know, was Weast ready to decimate an instrumental music program that has helped thousands of students be successful for such a paltry savings?
“I’m so frustrated. I want to move,” one Silver Spring mom said privately.
Proponents of the instrumental music program had shown up wearing red, hoping to present a united front to the school board. But very few actually got seats in the meeting room, which holds 99, and instead were directed down the hall to an auditorium to watch the meeting on TV. Shades of red filled some rows and dotted others among the more than 200 people who filled the auditorium; others were there to promote their views on other issues before the board.
The crowd waved yellow sheets of paper adorned with black music notes and cheered as several parents and teachers told the board why cutting instrumental music teachers was such a bad idea.
Frustrated that the board could not see them, several people got up and left. But those who stayed received a quick visit by Weast, who first spoke to a couple of parents as he stepped into the back of the room.
“Just show up at the County Council meeting,” Weast advised these parents. “These are non-recommended cuts. We haven’t made them. We have no intention of making them.”
Then he turned to the crowd, gave them a thumbs up, and advised them to attend the council’s upcoming budget hearings. “Let’s make sure we don’t get them cut at the County Council.”
Those words did not sit well with Steven Loeb of L&L Music Wind Shop, a Gaithersburg business that handles instruments repairs for MCPS schools. He wondered why Weast didn’t take ownership for the proposed budget cuts.
Loeb’s conclusion? We live in a society where nobody is willing to take responsibility for their decisions. “He just said, ‘It’s not my fault, it’s the County Council’s,’” Loeb said.
But somebody is going to have to make the hard decisions. Weast’s proposed cuts total little more than 50 percent of the $82 million reduction recommended by County Executive Ike Leggett.
Losing four instrumental music teachers may be the least of our worries.
