What can be cut from our state budget besides music and art education?!

Music and art are what stimulate a child's mind. It teaches them discipline as well as gives them a sense of pride and accomplishment. It also helps them in their career building in their adult life.

So why the heck are we taking art and music education out of our education system in the state of Nebraska. Well, we all know that we are facing some budget cutting issues, but their real reason for it is that music and art are not a part of government standardized testing. You would think they would be a part of that considering they contribute to five of the seven ways we communicate.

Republican Governor Dave Heineman say that strengthening our education system is on of his biggest priorities. But seriously....lets think about this....are we really strengthening our system by cutting music and art education out of our children's lives? I don't believe so. Lets take a look at some facts...

Students who are not involved in fine arts have more than double the chance of dropping out of high school by the 10th grade. I don't really see how that is helping the system. As Martin Rayala, art, media and design consultant for the Department of Public Instruction at Wisconsin, said, "There are seven ways to communicate information, and words and numbers are only two of them. The other five are movement, sounds, images, objects, and spaces, all of which are provided through the arts.”

And schools can forget about saving money by cutting art and music because studies have shown that taking away music and art actually increases vandalism and disruptive behavior which therefore leads to spending money on discipline teachers and vandalism damages.

We need to look at the alternatives...
Maybe we should have all employees take a two week unpaid vacation at their convenience to balance our budget. Or maybe we should cut 3% from everybody’s budget. That small amount could add up to a lot.

That's just a thought...but it sure makes more sense to me to take action on one of those options rather than taking the one thing away from children that lets their mind be creative.