The school board in Lansing, Michigan, reached a deal with its teachers union to slash the budget. The district will eliminate teachers of the arts, music, and physical education in elementary schools. That is a cut of 87 teachers in a staff of 915. The teachers also accepted a pay freeze.
What kind of state and nation can’t afford arts and physical education for its young children?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How much bloodletting will our nation allow before the revolution begins?
Lansing’s children will not be educated. They will be tested on academia alone. Education is not just academics.
Private Schools never looked so good.What a shame to exclude the Arts from Public education. Some students are so talented in those areas yet we deem smart in only one area.-“Academia”
One life to live and those students must live it in a Test Driven Mania World!
Insanity. Sheer insanity. How the people who do this sleep at night I have no idea.
Google : “It’s Not on the Test , Tom Chapin”.
Chapin put together a very clever video about third graders and the loss of Music and Art.
Note: The private schools the Obama, Christie and Rhee girl attend are not losing Art and Music!
Re: above
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dAujuqCo7s
What does Obama’s children have to do with the horrible decision made by this short-sighted school board? And all those teachers will be entering the ranks of the unemployed. Thank you, John Kratus, for your input.
Albert Einstein on his Theory of Relativity:
“It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception.”
What are we denying ourselves as a nation by denying the arts to even one child? What price will we pay for our short-sighted ignorance?
The state – Michigan – is ravaged by the economic downturn and over-reliance on the auto industry, and Lansing is a city badly hurt by the loss of auto factory jobs and industry. Take a look at other Michigan urban centers – Detroit, Flint, Benton Harbor…the picture is as heartbreaking as it is bleak. The bigger question is, as you alluded to, WHAT KIND OF NATION do we live in that allows our future to be blighted in this way?
this is so terrible!
What kind of state and nation can’t afford arts and physical education for its young children?
Our country – a country bought, lock, stock and barrell, by the billionaires. They wave the greenbacks, and our “leaders” are hypnotized, doing anything the Gates, Broad, etc. crowd tell them to do. They, and their billionaire bosses don’t give a damn about children. Why the hell should they? Their kids, if not already grown, go to private schools. (Just like our superintendent’s nephew by the way. Now, she’s really invested in public education.)
“Sound in Body-Sound in Mind”
No more..they are interested in Test Scores and money in their pockets.
What a Crying Shame!
This is old news in Arizona….art/music/pe teachers cut 4 years ago…pay frozen for 5 years……
Cutting physical Ed when obesity is still such a problem….another display of our short sightedness!
Agree 100%. We will have a bunch of Obese Couch Potatoes who know only how to take a TEST!
Cutting the arts when we have incidents like Sandy Hook? Clearly these kids need an outlet. They need a form of self expression. We cannot understand our kids and this is why. We are only taking the time to teach them to express themselves in writing and bubble in tests. We can’t hear them crying out for our help because we are taking their means for self expression! We have to keep the arts!
Very disturbing news–what a way to celebrate the end of Music in Our Schools Month & Youth Art Month!
Superintendent in my district spent time in Afghanistan as a National Guard member where he helped in their schools. They are a third world country but they have art and music in their schools. He wonders why in America we can’t afford to give our kids art and music.
Does Pearson have a corner on the educational market in Afghanistan?
Once again, Dr. Ravitch is rendering an opinion without seeking evidence from those of us who have to implement flawed policy. The Lansing School District is NOT eliminating the arts, PE, or music from the curriculum. Happy to discuss the conditions of the agreement should she/anyone want to ask before assuming. The state of public education in Michigan is under attack and THIS is what “Ravitch the Great” chooses on which to comment?! How about the Educational Achievement Authority that is creating an experimental parallel public education system for priority schools under the authority of an ill-informed legislature and governor, or the state aid foundation allowance that follows student from pillar to post, or the right to work legislation that fundamentally elimnates teachers’ unions from our state’s infrastructure an political process? I am appaled at the myopic commentary from my colleagues. I am the Superintendent of the Lansing School District who is trying to make sense of all this every day.
Yvonne, I would be pleased to get a reasoned response from you rather than your insulting comment here. You set a poor example for your staff and students by resorting to name-calling. I did not invent the report about Lansing eliminating the arts, music, and physical education, nor did I post hearsay; I cited an article in your local newspaper (http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20130321/NEWS05/303210084?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1). Why don’t you call the reporter and tell her she was misinformed? Remember to be polite when you call her. If you have a different story, please tell it, but try not to resort to invective.
“The Lansing School District is NOT eliminating the arts, PE, or music from the curriculum.” …just all those that are qualified to teach them!
Dr .Ravitch:
I understand why you would take offense with Dr. Canul’s tone, but you’ll have to excuse her—the all-out attack on education in Michigan is akin to what Walker has done in Wisconsin. Over 70 pieces of legislation geared directly at union busting, over $1 billion stolen from the state education fund, ridiculous teacher evaluations, standardized testing…it’s been a rough couple of years. The Lansing School District is being systematically dismantled, and I do not envy the superintendents in Michigan the Herculean task that Snyder has thrust upon them. We in education here in Michigan feel powerless, and there seems to be no reprieve in sight.
Tim Akers, I am appalled by the all-out assault on public education in Michigan. I’m on your side. It’s not wise to lash out at your allies.
What upsets me about this disaster is that Yvonne is not speaking the whole truth. NO the ARTS are not being cut in the Lansing School District but they are being scaled way way down and taught by members of the community! As I have stated in other articles and videos out there ~ WHY are you replacing Highly Qualified, educated TEACHING professionals already in these positions with community members who more than likely do this as a HOBBY???? These community members are not trained EDUCATORS! I’m also concerned ~ who is going to be doing the grading and tracking my childs progress?? A member of a local BAND? WHY can’t these questions be answered instead of the usual comment – NO, they are not being cut. THE QUALITY of education in the ARTS is being cut….own up to that!!!
If you’re really angry, get your friends and family to contact their state representatives and the Governor and get funding returned to public education. Complaining won’t change anything – this is not a programming decision meant to lower the status of art, music and pe teachers – there simply isn’t enough money. Nothing can change unless the legislature and the governor restore funding to public schools.
To be fair, I believe it to be true that Lansing Schools are under attack from the state. But, Superintendent Caamal Canul, trying to fill the shoes of highly-qualified arts specialists with classroom teachers in consultation with community artists is a desperation move, not an innovative approach, as you stated on the local news last night. I am terribly saddened and disappointed for the district, its teachers and its students.
So the rationale from the angry Super is to dump more on the exhausted, demeaned, over-burdened teachers? And that’s leadership?
You ARE cutting appropriate arts education for your students. The use of “community members” or other non educators is not acceptable and wouldn’t be accepted in other areas of the curriculum. While difficult decisions must be made, cutting access to quality teaching in entire areas of our students curriculum is not the answer. Your response here is an embarrassment to the students you should be representing.
So, what are Lansing Public Schools going to do about this? What are you going to do, Yvonne? What are the students going to do? I’ve been hoping to find evidence of a student-led uprising, but have yet to see it. Unfortunately, so many of us are unable to take a day (or more) away from work to make our voices heard at the capitol, and lately it’s seemed that nobody listens anyway. However, YOU, the students, the teachers – you are already there. You are already in the schools – organizing a response needs to happen from within. If you won’t act, I hope your students and their families do. If it was not for the 4 years of choir I had in high school, I wouldn’t be here today. And when I think about the elimination of the arts from an already unbelievably tense education thanks to high-stakes testing, I, as a parent and educator myself, am afraid of what this will do for other young people whose lives were saved by having dedicated music, arts, and phys. ed programs, including those who taught them.
Well, for lack of a better way of putting it, art, music, and gym will be for any public or private school that can afford them and afford them well with high standards and high quality teaching.
And if they can’t: bye-bye, it was nice knowing you. Besides, you’re not a standardized testing subject. At least for now, you’re not.
It’s perverse, but anyone reading this blog will be able to realize that this shift in public education is but a reflection in the massive shifts in wealth and power in general across the Untied States. We won’t just feel it in public education, but in every aspect of our culture.
It’s such a strange phenomenon, isn’t it? We the people give our power away to the 2% plutocrats, and all we have to do is take it back, but we can’t because of the blinders and crutches we have allowed ourselves to get accustomed to. Getting distracted by mindless consumerism, corporate sponsored media, snake mouthed politicians, and work schedules that bring us back almost to Edwardian England.
You know, it’s funny: my wife’s ex-patriate friend who has lived in France for about 20 years said to me last year, “When Americans are getting squeezed and crunched and sucker punched by these oligarchs, they simply get on the bicylce and peddle harder with another part time job or ways to supplement their income.”
And despite all our hard work and decrepit 2 weeks off per year, we still can’t afford healthcare, college, and now art, music, and gym for children.
But we generous Americans certainly can afford TONS of other things:
1. Offshore tax havens for people like Mitt Romney.
2. Bailouts for Wall Street.
3. Bailouts for the auto industry.
4. Drugs for medicare that must be purchased ONLY from American pharmaceutical companies and not abroad.
5. Democratizing other nations with our military at an average cost of 2 million dollars per minute.
6. Invading nations that had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction.
7. A tax system that has Warren Buffet paying about 15% in taxes while his secretary pays 33% and with Buffet making about 345 times her salary.
8. A healthcare plan that is far more generous to our elected officials in the House, Senate, and Executive branch than to the average constituents who voted for them.
9. A for-profit, mostly privatized healtcare system for non-seniors that puts profit over the universality of healthcare as a fundamental, human, civil, and collective right.
Yet, with all that we can so abundantly afford, we can no longer pay for art, music, and gym.
Robert Reich, are you listening? . . . .
We are witnessing the emergence of an American-style fascism. Many of these points, including rampant corporatism, are major tenets of fascism. This will end up in a very bad place if we continue down this path.
Damage that can not be undone – ever.
Opportunities lost never to be seen again.
A travesty. It’s insane. Classroom teachers must pick up the work of teaching art & music – it’s an important part of being human… appreciating life… connecting with other people & the rest of everything beautiful in the world. I want to cry.
Art and music teachers ARE classroom teachers. How on earth do you think teachers who have not been trained to teach these subject areas can even begin to do the curriculum justice? For example, teaching children to sing “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” to accompany a social studies unit does not constitute picking up the work of a music educator. Music is one of the most difficult, complex and layered subjects to teach and learn.
Again, the Physical Education teacher is left out of the conversation. We are also trained and highly qualified.
Creativity is a key element in learning and innovation. It is absolutely sickening that the fools in charge of Lansing Public Schools would have the absolute stupidity to eliminate the arts and phys ed. FOOLS! So now the kids can take test after test and prep for all these tests like automatons. Guess they for certain won’t be meeting there ridiculous AYP. Those students are going to be so hostile they will just start filling in “whatever”…
What kind of state forces it’s bright, dedicated educational leaders into a position where they must eliminate quality programs to save their local schools?
Do any early childhood educators here remember when we used to talk about educating the whole child? It was not that long ago, but now it seems so very long ago, in a galaxy far, far, away.
A nation that can’t afford that is one which has increased its debt from 10 to 17 trillion dollars in four years by wasting the borrowed money in unnecessary regulation, pay offs to constituents disguised as bail outs, and outright pork pay offs. A state that can’t afford that is one whose economy is depressed because of the counter productive economic policies of the federal government, delaying recovery from the recession for four years by the above mentioned excess federal spending, by unpredictability about taxes, and by inflationary settlements with public unions. Jessie Jackson is calling for a demonstration in Detroit against the new emergency manager. THAT’s the kind of nation and state, one in which many of its citizens believe in their hearts they have a right to be taken care of even if they contribute virtually nothing to the productivity of the society.
Excuse me, the debt came from 2 unfunded wars and tax breaks for the wealthy during the Cheney administration. Obama has not been a friend to education, but he’s not the one responsible for rampant federal spending. Read Paul Krugman.
That’s part of it, but that was before Obama took office. Krugman is tendentious and cannot be trusted as a source. The debt came from the increased spending under Obama.
Thank you, Patricia! You’re right.
It’s a state and nation in which the majority of its voters think they have a right to the property of rich people, who already pay most of the taxes—I forget the specific percentages—a state and nation which has been deluded into thinking that the rich have somehow mysteriously stolen their wealth from working people, and thus can be plundered with moral justification. It is that kind of pirate mentality which has taken over the country and has no respect for its own ethics and thus feels “entitled” to whatever they can legally steal. Now the federal government can print money, which it has been doing for a number of years by the federal reserve buying up treasury bonds, but that too is theft, because with more money floating around the cost of goods goes up in dollars (just pieces of paper—not gold or silver certificates). The state (Michigan) cannot print money, so must depend on tax revenues from diminished business activity, and declining population (Detroit), and declining property values. It’s a state and nation in which the majority of the voters don’t even think they are the problem, and thus blame people whose relative wealth isolates them (relatively speaking) from increases in the cost of bread, of gasoline, and of health care. It is a state and nation in which economic ignorance outvotes prudence. And in public education, the union accepts a deal that diminishes education. “I’m all right, Jack” the non-arts teachers say, but their time is coming too from school closures, charter openings, and online schools. This situation comes from a majority of the voters not having any idea of what true justice is, and don’t know much about courage or temperance either. We have a deficiency of dollars because we have an unacknowledged deficiency of virtue.
You are almost 100 percent wrong about both of your tirades. For starters:
I have family in Michigan, teachers, and your lack of insight is perplexing. Not too many middle class taxpayers would agree with you.
I’m with plunkshop:
“You are almost 100 percent wrong about both of your tirades.”
The wealthy are not overtaxed:
“In fact, because of growing income inequality, the top 10 percent of American earners now earns 42 percent of the nation’s income, and when correctly calculated, pay about 50 percent of the federal income and payroll tax burden – not much larger than their share of earnings.”
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/26/getting-facts-straight-americas-tax-burden
Typically his response is something like: I am just repeating what conservatives think, as though he speaks for all conservatives. A bit presumptuous, no?
Why don’t you explain it in your own words. Don’t blame the lack of insight of the Michigan teachers posting here on me. I didn’t educate them.
What state have these problems? Check who the governors are in 30 of our states. Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and on and on. They are bought by the corporations. There is a methodical privatization of public service industries. Teaching as a profession is being replaced by short term hires with energy and no real training beyond 5 weeks.
Diane, I recently saw a graphic of the wealth distribution in the United States and it was stunning. The top 1% have 40% of the wealth while the bottom 80% have only 7%. The rest- the 19% have 53% of the wealth.
The reality is this wealth distribution cannot sustain a democratic republic. What will take over is frightening to contemplate.
I want to know why the parents in Lansing are not in the streets…And I want to know why a union would agree to such an outrage. We are fast sinking into what I call 2nd world status- I think it is a more apt description than the developed and developing worlds. .
Fremont, can you repost the link? I recently saw this film and sent it to so many people. It was very comprehensible. Please send the link if you know where it is.
I found this link. I don’t know if it is the one you were thinking of. http://www.thefrustratedteacher.com/2013/03/its-wrose-than-you-think.html
Lansing will not be education anyone.. They will be TESTING.
Remove the arts and you have a Bland and Boring system.
I learn better after exercise…while listening to Beethoven or Bach or Mozart or my favorite pop song…
I learn better when I am happy…I learn better when education is exciting.
I learn in a myriad of settings but I never learn in a TESTING SCHOOL.
After all this time, too many many public school teachers still don’t understand what is happening yet. Their union leaders are, if anything, even more clueless or cowardly. They apparently think they can make a few concessions, toss a few colleagues under the bus, and hang onto their jobs a few more years.
Maybe they really are too dumb to be teaching anyone anything …
Agreed. Few teachers in my school understand the dire situation we are now in. Not only that, but they are annoyed by what I do forward to them.
Exactly! Most teachers in my school are clueless to what is happening to them. And when I point it out to them they think I’m the one who is nuts.
I face similar avoidance and apathy. .. but they will find out one day when they face a dismissal hearing as a result of 2 consecutive years of unsatisfactory HEDI ratings that were based on junk science.
I don’t know who I have more opprobrium for: the bad reformers or the people who are apolitical and choose not to inform themselves.
I work in education in Southeast Michigan, and our area is going through very similar cuts as the ones happening in Lansing. Luckily, the school where I work (Arts Academy in the Woods) understands the extreme importance of arts education and refuses to take the same measures as other schools in the area. Our school is free and open to the public! If you know any high school kids that are being affected by these cuts in Michigan, encourage them to check us out!
This is not the time to be trolling for students. Lets keep the focus on the situation in Lansing, and how we all can help the kids and teachers in the city’s schools.
I support our superintendent in that what is happening in our, and school districts across the state is a direct result or actions being taken by the legislature which is trying the destroy public education as we know it in Michigan.Striping public schools of funding, creating the EAA which can rip schools from local control and put them into a “state” district that reports to no one, The restructuring of our music programs is a direct of of this.
Jim Allen, I deplore the terrible budget cuts in Michigan and the deliberate effort to destroy public education. Why did your superintendent lash out at me for calling attention to the devastating impact of the cuts? Was it just generalized anger?
Have you confirmed that was actually her?? It doesn’t sound like her to me I find it strange that the post was “Superintendent” and not in her name
What difference does it make, Jim?
Today, it’s art, music, and gym, and at some point down the road, it will be other cuts resulting in teacher loss, space loss, overcrowding, loss of books and materials.
If I had children studying art, music, and gym, I’d want them learning it from someone who is specialized in both the content and delivery of it. Using general license classroom teachers to take these roles over is sad, lame, and desperate. . . . not to mention a specious education.
In one of the richest nations on earth, Lansings losses are a reflection of a decay in democracy. There are no excuses here, only bad and selfish politics.
There is now a negligible amount of “American exceptionalism” left in our culture. Lansing’s superintendent’s moves corroborate this.
Period, end of story.
Statement Regarding Proposed Cuts to Art, Music and Physical Eduction in the Lansing School District
March 23, 2013
The recent decision of the Lansing School Board and Superintendent Yvonne Caamal Canul to eliminate all music, art and physical education instruction from the budget next year is troubling and disappointing. We believe that the children in our urban schools deserve the same access to high quality, sequential music instruction, provided by certified teachers, that their peers in the suburbs enjoy, and that this instruction is crucial to providing a comprehensive education. This decision significantly diminishes the quality of education for the students in the Lansing School District and makes it a less desirable place for families with children to locate.
The Michigan State University College of Music and Community Music School faculty and administration believe that access to regular and sequential instruction in the arts is an important component of the education for all of our young people. We are committed to the preparation and development of highly qualified, certified music educators for the state’s public schools, and to access to comprehensive, sequential music instruction for all of Michigan’s citizens, from young to old. While we understand the budget constraints faced by all of the state’s educational institutions in our current economy, the decision by the superintendent and school board of the Lansing School District to cut 87 music, art, PE and media teachers from next year’s budget is deeply troubling and disappointing. We are concerned about the impact that these cuts will have on the quality of the educational program offered to Lansing’s children. Bringing in members of the community to engage with students musically under the guidance of classroom teachers does not provide a meaningful substitute for a comprehensive, sequential music education provided by a highly qualified music teacher. There is not an adequate alternative means of providing what will be lost to the children of the Lansing School District.
The Music Education faculty at MSU is also strongly committed to providing our students with experiences in Lansing’s schools, and has worked closely with members of the district’s music faculty and administration in the placement of student teachers and coordinating observations in the district’s schools for our students. The absence of certified music specialists in the elementary schools means that we will no longer be able to place our interns in Lansing’s schools, and will need to look for other urban placements for our students. This decision is regrettable for the teachers, but is even more harmful for the children in Lansing’s elementary schools, who will be denied a comprehensive education in the arts.
We strongly support Lansing’s music teachers, and urge Superintendent Caamal Canul and the Lansing School Board to reconsider their decision, which negatively impacts the quality of learning for Lansing’s children in significant ways.
Mitchell Robinson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chair of Music Education
Michigan State University
Rhonda Buckley
Associate Dean for Outreach and Engagement
Executive Director, Community Music School
Michigan State University
James Forger
Dean, College of Music
Michigan State University
These professors are entirely correct about the deleterious effects. But, of course, they have nothing to say about how to balance the school budget of Lansing. The arts and important, but the crucial question is who is going to pay for them? Oh, I know, “the rich.” Oh, I know, “They don’t pay their fair share.” Oh, I know, Mitch, Rhonda, and Jim are “Music Educators” and can’t be expected to know anything about public finance. Their like Romans lamenting a death of Jesus. “Yes, a terrible thing, but none of my business.” It’s a good thing they don’t run the solar system. The sun wouldn’t come up, and they’d say “It’s a terrible thing” but none of my business. Good public education is everyone’s business, but no one EVER explains how it should be paid for. They claim “I’m on the side of the Angels” but that’s as far as it goes. Democrats always want someone else to pay, preferably the “rich.” They’d rather steal it, because that’s what they’ve been doing for a 100 years, but now that some of the citizens say “no” you can’t have any more they are offended and shocked. It’s like the Italian Mafia being offended when different ethnic gangs want in on the drug trade. Just because you have a good thing doesn’t mean you are exempt from ‘competition.’ Oh, horrors. “Competition.” What a disgusting word.
Harlan, I sincerely wish I could digest and process politics as simplistically as you do. I’d stand to be a lot more happy, well adjusted, and balanced.
It’s too bad I’m moral enough to share my toys and think about the collective good. I’m no communist or socialist, but as someone who has ties to Europe and speaks fluent French and Spanish, those labels mean something different in every country.
I earn a certain income, I expect to pay for those less fortunate, and it is my money, in part, that keeps people off the streets, children and parents fed, and educational services delivered. It’s all on a spectrum, this sharing . . . And right now the spectrum has become warped and gravely imbalanced.
Our free market system is anything but that with corporate bailouts and corporate welfare.
If you think the rich sharing more to educate the masses is expensive or unjust, try calculating the cost of an uneducated or under-educated society.
Have you thought about ex-patritating to Honduras or Nicaragua. You’s love it there. The way the society is set up there fits your rhetoric perfectly. And you wouldn’t even need a private tutor to learn Spanish. Rosetta Stone is a lovely program . . .
we could start by reexamining how we finance public education in our state. what worked well when times were flush doesn’t work so well when the economy, which has been limited to the auto industry in our state for far too long, is depressed. we could also not pit teachers against one another in a game of “educational chicken.” and we could stop starving the public schools and higher education and start investing in our state’s future, instead of providing tax breaks for the wealthy and big business as our current governor and his conservative allies in the state legislature have been doing.
but I’m only a “music educator,” so what do i know. . .
Here is a blog I created about the impact of a music director I had…which nicely sums up why I, as a Michigan educator, will always advocate for the arts in education in Lansing and beyond! http://www.theedtechcheerleader.com/2012/07/you-know-you-had-all-star-teacher-when.html
Ours. Our nazi governor wants an uneducated workforce with their entire capacity to work being flipping burgers and then buying them and shoving them down their throats. Snyder us a force of evil. He cares only about himself and his rich cronies. Bad bad evil person.
*Like*
Do you realize the governor has nothing to do with decisions made by the Lansing school board? I do not know whether this is an example of someone not understanding how our government works, or just wanting to attack Snyder no matter what the topic of discussion is: “My cat has rabies” peteelew: “Our Nazi governor wants us all to be slaves”
I’m just shocked they UNION agreed to this. Perhaps they felt they were over the proverbial barrel but to throw children under the bus in an attempt to have a contract? As a teacher and parent, this is a BAD idea.