Fine Arts Funding

Friday Nights at the school stadium. People cheering on their favorite team while music is blasted in the background. The team runs off the field and who comes on? The marching band. As you sit down to watch their performance, you may think wow they are really good. Unfortunately, fine arts programs are very limited on resources for their students because they don’t get enough funding. This is a huge problem because many people want to be in a fine art but they can’t due to funding. Schools need to give fine arts programs more funding because these programs help in many different ways.

One way that these programs help people is that they help them realize what they want to do when they grow up. One example of this is from the Harvard Education Magazine. Author Mary Tamer shares a story of South Boston High School and a student there who participated in a fine arts program. As she interviewed the drama teacher, he says, “He told me that it was theater class at South Boston High School that led him to writing.” (Tamer).  Students are very affected by fine arts and in this case the rest of the student’s life was affected by a single class. These classes affect students positively and should be given more funding  At the same time, in an article by Jen McDonald, she talks about how education is important, but being in a fine arts program helps kids a lot. “Having an education balanced in core subjects and the arts can greatly improve students' grades and life creating a better future for kids’ futures.” (McDonald). Fine Arts programs help prepare students for their future careers and lives. Fine arts programs provide kids with something that they love to do and are passionate about. Fine arts programs deserve more funding because they help kids find what they like and how that can impact their future. 

In addition, fine arts programs should be given more funding because it can help people in general. In Colin Moynihan’s article in the New York Times it talks about how the arts can help bring an economy up again. Although this article may be specific to California, it can apply to any state or country. Moynihan talks about how California lost a lot of jobs and their economy has started to decline, but, ‘The arts can and must play an important role in helping rebuild our society and get us back on track.” (Moynihan). The state of California had a meeting, and the senator there talked about how he was encouraged to bring the arts to people's attention because they can help bring the economy back up again. The arts are essential to the happiness of many people and if the arts are back then that will lead people to be happier and want to work and help their state. In my personal life, Band is a huge part of my life and has led me to some of my closest friends and has led me to be the person I am today. As a band student, it is really hard to watch the lack of funding for the programs. It is also very hard to watch the directors, who don’t make very much, spend their own money on music or different things to benefit the program. It is also very hard to see them put off things that would help out the program because they don’t have enough money. For example, they have been telling us that they will repaint the band truck. This project would really help the band program get back on track and be more recognized by others but it hasn't been able to be completed because of the lack of funding and these projects are super expensive. Fine art programs deserve more funding as they bring a lot of hype to games, assemblies, and just everyday high school activities. They also help the economy and can help bring a society back from nothing. 

All in all, fine arts programs deserve more funding because they help so many people and can impact society in so many ways. Fine arts programs are super important to many people, and these programs help students in general to be happier which causes a happier environment in schools and at home. Fine arts deserve more than they get because they bring so many people joy. Directors shouldn’t have to spend the little money they already have in order to purchase things for the program.