{"id":31149,"date":"2019-01-17T16:44:32","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T22:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=31149"},"modified":"2019-01-31T15:02:22","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T21:02:22","slug":"decline-in-school-arts-programs-follows-funding-drop-but-cuts-arent-equally-felt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2019\/01\/17\/decline-in-school-arts-programs-follows-funding-drop-but-cuts-arent-equally-felt\/","title":{"rendered":"Decline in school arts programs follows funding drop, but cuts aren\u2019t equally felt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Wanette School District is nestled in a rural stretch of Oklahoma about 30 miles southeast of Norman.<\/p><p>For a long time, high school juniors and seniors had a dedicated art teacher who taught class five days a week. They would paint, sketch and learn ceramics. That all changed five years ago after budget cuts forced district officials to eliminate the class.<\/p><p>Now, instead of creating art every day, high school students have the option of learning about its history online. Very few do.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/560577027&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p><p>Librarian Brenda Roberts is doing her best to revive the arts in Wanette. A few years ago, she started offering a new art class for middle school students.<\/p><p>\u201cI\u2019ve just been doing classes one or two days a week,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t even do that every year. Like, last year I was the counselor, too, and I had no time for art.\u201d<\/p><p>Wanette isn\u2019t the only Oklahoma school district forced to end fine arts classes in recent years.<\/p>\n<h3>A thousand fewer classes<\/h3><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/s\/6mx3d3bsgdxjyep\/Teachers%20and%20Pupils%20per%20Subject%202014-18.xlsx?dl=0\">State Department of Education data suggest\u00a0<\/a>Oklahoma schools ended 1,110 fine arts classes between 2014 and 2018, a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sde.ok.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/documents\/files\/Fast%20Facts%20FY17%20December%2021%202017.pdf\">period of severe state budget cuts<\/a>. The cuts affected classes for visual arts, theater, music and band \u2014 as well as speech and debate. In 2018, nearly <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1PeIh0IdnyXheIITL6FK-MZ5LOQZ9xajS\/view\">30 percent\u00a0<\/a>of public school students in Oklahoma went to a school with no fine arts classes, state records show.<\/p><p>Arts programs are\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/edsource.org\/2014\/effort-to-revive-arts-programs-in-schools-gains-momentum\/63507\">often the first classes administrators cut\u00a0<\/a>when schools have financial struggles because arts are not tested subjects.<\/p><p>Roberts said students\u2019 loss of access to these courses is sad.<\/p><p>\u201cI feel like art is extremely important,\u201d she said. \u201cOver the years of teaching, I\u2019ve noticed it\u2019s the students that do not excel in academic classes that really do well in art. It lets them shine.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Uneven cuts<\/h3><p>Rebecca Fine, an education policy analyst for the Oklahoma Policy Institute, said the drop in art education affects certain schools more than others.<\/p><p>\u201cWhen we look at fine arts programs across the state, we see that rural schools and low-income schools are being affected the most by these budget cuts,\u201d she said.<\/p><p>Fine said the arts cuts deepen pre-existing inequalities that divide students at wealthy and poor schools and widens gaps between rural and urban schools.<\/p><p>Elizabeth Maughan, the fine arts director for the State Department of Education, doesn\u2019t think shrinking budgets are the only factor fueling fine arts cuts. She said a bigger hurdle in maintaining these programs could be schools\u2019 difficulty finding certified arts teachers, which is more challenging in rural districts.<\/p><p>\u201cThe students going into undergrad [teaching programs] aren\u2019t going out to rural districts. So it makes it harder for rural districts to get teachers,\u201d she said.<\/p><p>State records don\u2019t paint a precise picture of what\u2019s causing the loss of fine arts classes, or how they\u2019ve played out district-by-district, but it\u2019s clear these cuts have not hit all schools equally.<\/p><p>The Edmond Public School district, for example, has not cut any fine arts classes recently. But three years ago, the less affluent Oklahoma City Public Schools cut 44 art positions.<\/p><p>Rhonda Taylor, the director of visual and performing arts for OKCPS, said schools lost nearly 100 programs across the district. She said it makes sense that budget cuts would hurt Oklahoma City\u2019s arts programs more than other schools.<\/p><p>\u201cIn other districts, very often they\u2019re charging student fees for programs, and you\u2019ll especially see this in band,\u201d she said.<\/p><p>Taylor said it\u2019s common for schools to charge students hundreds of dollars a year, which can pay for everything from art supplies and instruments to fine arts teachers\u2019 salaries.<\/p><p>That\u2019s not the case in Oklahoma City Public Schools, where most students and families can\u2019t afford to pay for arts programs.<\/p><p>\u201cWe cannot rely on student fees at all,\u201d she said.<\/p><p>Taylor said local artists, museums and theater organizations stepped in to fill the gap as state funding slowed in recent years. Artists visited schools and led students through workshops about music and ceramics. Taylor is thankful for the support, but she said it\u2019s not the same as having consistent district art staff.<\/p>\n<h3>Arts\u2019 benefits<\/h3><p>In rural Wanette, librarian Brenda Roberts said her students don\u2019t have the same opportunities as their\u00a0big city counterparts.<\/p><p>\u201cUsed to, when there was grant money for art, take the entire high school to the art museum in Oklahoma City. One time we took them to the Fred Jones Museum in Norman. But that money dried up too,\u201d she said.<\/p><p>Roberts hopes lawmakers find a way to increase funding for the arts during the 2019 legislative session. She says music, dance, painting and drawing help kids build skills that math and English classes can\u2019t.<\/p><p>She said many of her students will eventually move out of Wanette, and exposure to art at a young age will help prepare them for the various cultures they\u2019ll be a part of in the future.<\/p><p>Research suggests Roberts is right. A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.edweek.org\/ew\/articles\/2014\/12\/03\/13greene.h34.html?r=924562112\">2014 University of Arkansas study found\u00a0<\/a>young people who were exposed to the arts were more tolerant and empathetic. Other\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/s\/5ojy6y95apff6rq\/Thomas%2C%20Kathleen%20M.%20et%20al..pdf?dl=0\">studies show\u00a0<\/a>consistent access to arts education is associated with a reduced dropout rate.<\/p><p>Roberts knows these subjects aren\u2019t going to end up on a state test, but she said they\u2019re still an essential part of students getting a well-rounded public education.<\/p><p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2018, nearly 30 percent of Oklahoma students went to a school with no music, dance or visual art education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":31150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[1011,1010,933],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31149"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31149"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31197,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31149\/revisions\/31197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}