New York City Mayor Eric Adams is imposing budget cuts on the public schools, and teachers of the arts are getting laid off first. Cutting the arts is incredibly stupid. Many students are motivated to attend school because of their involvement with the arts. Anyone who cuts the arts cuts joy, cuts creativity, cuts love of learning. Is Mayor Adams trying to drive students to charter schools to satisfy the billionaire hedge funders who supported his election?
On June 13, Paul Trust was called into the principal’s office at the PS 39 elementary school in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where he had taught music for over a decade.
In the meeting, the school’s administration told Trust that his job was in jeopardy and letting him go was the “worst-case scenario.” But after the principal met with the Borough Central Office to discuss her 2023 budget, that scenario became the reality: Trust would be “excessed,” or laid off from his position. And the school told its only other music teacher Nick Deutsch, who had been there for six years, the same thing, effectively eliminating its music department.
PS 39 was forced to decrease spending by 14%, one of approximately 1,200 district schools in New York — 77% of the city’s total — that were told to cut their budget by a specific dollar amount after Mayor Eric Adams slashed school funding by over $200 million. The cuts are tied to enrollment declines, which the majority of NYC schools experienced over the course of the pandemic. Budget decisions are at the discretion of the schools’ principals, and arts departments, already under-funded despite representing a “core academic subject,” are not protected…
In NYC, there are no allocations or guidelines mandating arts funding in schools. Reversing a 1997 initiative that earmarked arts spending per student, Mayor Mike Bloomberg eliminated mandates for the 2007 school year, allowing school principals to use previously allocated arts funding on anythingthey chose. The impact was immediate: That year, the percentage of schools without a certified art teacher rose from 20% to 30%, and spending on art supplies fell by 63%. …
The 2023 budget cuts could shrink NYC arts education programs even further, threatening the careers of public school arts teachers and leaving them with an uncertain future.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
When I designed my fully public school I put the arts under COMMUNICATION SKILLS. That locked them in as part of the curriculum along with reading, writing, listening, etc.
great explanation: ARTS of any kind are a language and language is literacy
True.
Beautifully conceived, Mr. Lee!
The arts should be considered an essential, not a frill that can be discarded. Some students respond to arts education when they do not respond to other subjects easily. The arts are part of a well-rounded, comprehensive education.
I don’t think there is an arts mandate in New York state. I know in lean budget years there were sometimes cuts to music, art and library, but not P.E. because NYS had a mandate to provide it.
My daughter tecently graduated from a NYS school. I don’t know if the requirement was local or state, but she was required to have several arts credits (two out of music, theater, and art.). She was also required to take art and either choir, band or orchestra in middle school. Our school district is rural and definitely not wealthy.
This decision is incredibly short-sighted. Art and music are important to children’s growth and development, another avenue for learning in addition to history, science, and math. The mayor should find another way to plan his budget. These cuts will impoverish the teaching at all New York schools.
Was sure bummed to hear Trevor Noah interview him. They made him sound like the savior of these horrible public schools.
Adams was a cop. Guess where he wants to spend money.
While walking through DFW the other day, a welcome recording played from the mayor of Ft. Worth played over the loudspeakers touting all the wonderful things in her city. Number one on the list? “World class art museums.” In Texas, no less.
Goes to show: not everyone in Texas is stupid.
And that museum has a Caravaggio. Always worth (no pun intended) a trip, even if it is in Texas
Walked through DFW again today, this time a recording of Dallas mayor. Arts made the top three of things he touted.
And someone needs to tell Mayor Adams that a whole bunch of us are drawn to spend a lot of money to visit NYC pretty much for the diverse art the city offers.
They just don’t think or care.
It’s the culture, stupid!
Possibly what contributes to our nation’s lack of culture and is a lack of culture. Gun culture. Angry culture. Spark plug reactionary culture. Instant gratification. Social media. Attention spans shorter than if you are still reading this.
To stare at a work of art. To figure out what a cloud or a picture looks like to a 6 year old. Imagination. To appreciate music. “He Brahms” (See “Conrack”). Slower pace… Point of view. Expression. THAT is what we need more than ever to combat the demise of culture.
However, in most states a teacher would be fired for asking kids to look at a picture or hear a song or read a poem and ask, “How does that make you feel?”
And, gosh forbid the kids see Norman Rockwell’s “The Problem We All Live With” (Ruby Bridges painting)
Thinking about a painting? Is that the dreaded “social emotional learning”? If it’s the Norman Rockwell painting of Ruby Bridges, it must be CRT.
Critical Ruby Theory
Critical Ruby Theory: Making sure Ruby Bridges’ story is never told again to anyone.
What is next. Physical Education? Where is the leader educator under Adams command Probably admitting only his wishes. I knew he was nearsighted with education Now I know he is blind to see the importance of culture where Art seats
I guarantee P.E. stays. The Adams Youth must be loyal exemplars of physical and mental genetic superiority, as determined by achievement data algorithms. Males must be fully prepared for the standards-based rigor of military training. Females must be healthy vessels. Adams is funded by corporatist-libertarian privatization and deregulation moguls, closely related to the fascists of the last century. The only artist needed in a fascist society is the one who paints the wall sized portraits of our glorious leaders for their mansions. The police state, however, will grow. Bank on it, literally.
“Females must be healthy vessels”
Yes, “fetus vessels”
Women are Vessels
A “vessel” is a woman
A kind of fetus jar
Amphora of the Roman
And beer stein of a bar
It arts is not the place to cut, then what is the good place to cut spending as the number of students goes down?
Who’s next, librarians? With already sadly under-libraried schools (& guess where those might be?), Chicago is laying off librarians right & left.
Maybe Adams & CPS want to DeSanitize their schools.
Just stick to the facts, ma’am: no thinking in these here parts.
Does NYC still have libraries? The only reason we have any librarians in Los Angeles is that we went on strike and won them back after “reformers” laid them all off. You are absolutely right, the “reformers” have nearly everything in common with the far right. “DeSanitize” is a good word to describe what Adams is doing.
De-Sanity.
The irony is the arts are now more important that ever.for the jobs of the future.
There are two types of jobs that will be most immune to replacement by computers : the classic trades and jobs that involve creativity, which is encouraged through the arts.
Computers will replace pretty much every job that involves calculation and repetitive busy work and even low level “analysis” (economist. Accountant, radiologist., Statistician, ll Lawyer, etc) The jobs that will resist replacement will be ones like product designer, architect, graphic designer,. Musician, fine artist, dancer,,, etc.
Unfortunately, everyone has been led to falsely — robotically — believe that STEM is the only way to enter or stay in the shrinking middle class. How many web browser cookie cutters can society need, though? The elimination of creative thinking in public schools is achieved by a powerful propaganda campaign. Data driven drivel.
Many STEM workers will be the first to be replaced.
The hilarious thing is that computer coding is one of the jobs that lends itself best to automation.
And most American programmers have already figured out that it lends itself to outsourcing.
Just a few years ago, one had to know a lot about coding to build a website but now there is software that will automatically generate the code and the most important job is now design.
The same pattern is being followed for smartphone app development.
I knew that the NYC school system might take a hit over the two years that schools were either sporadically closing, using a hybrid, or solely doing remote learning. I am devastated to learn that the school system has lost 400,000 students to parochial, private, and charter schools. I know which population would suffer the most, Black, and brown children from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
At the height of the pandemic, the inequities in the educational system, that researchers and scholars have pointed out, came glaringly to life with families in wealthier socio-economic circumstances able to move their children to private schools or set up pods. Political leaders committing to a robust application of social, academic protections would alleviate the issue. Serving the needs of fewer than 20 students in a class often results in more individual attention, increased participation, and better communication between the instructor and students. Do people not remember that students have to re-learn how to engage with their peers as well as teachers, along with catch up on the past two years of learning?.
The remaining 700,000 are now going to receive services based on their parent(s) ability to have the time to monitor the type of education their child or children by the Department of Education. Those students in specialized or magnet schools will not feel the impact of a reduced budget as their numbers have not decreased. The principals of regular local community schools must reduce their budgets anywhere from approximately 1.2 to 7.5 million dollars.
Now would be the time to deliver on making sure there is equity in teacher ability to deliver content and pedagogy, along with better engagement and a better balance of resources, not punish students by taking away their access to the arts and support services.
It is aggravating that instead of declining enrollment being an great opportunity to reduce class sizes, instead it is an excuse for why budgets for arts teachers are cut.
For a couple decades it is has seemed a very difficult task to reduce class sizes as more and more parents wanted their kids to attend that school. Barring the long term expense and delay of building new schools or adding to existing schools or using trailers outside, reducing class size was a complex problem to solve.
But the population decline is an opportunity! Instead of cutting budgets, increase them and have smaller class sizes and the arts.
Shame how it’s impossible to have small class sizes when schools are overcrowded because there is no space, and it is impossible to have small class sizes when schools are not crowded because there is no money.
There is no will. That is the bottom line. And the rich billionaires whose kids attend private schools with very small class sizes for kids whose parents can pay $50,000+ annually AND hire private tutors regularly to supplement every time their kid struggles to learn have the chutzpah to say it’s not important for kids who don’t have the many advantages their own kids had to have small class sizes or arts programs.
Your first sentence says it all.
Adams is definitely corporate driven. On Trevor Noah he stated that 65% of new York city public school kids are not reading at grade level standards. So he is going to fix it by testing each kid for reading disabilities. Once again, kids will see reading as a chore and many are not ready to read by the age of 5. My own children were late readers. So again kids come in labeled as deficient instead of the data driven/standards based system being seen as deficient. He’s horrible.
I’d also love to see adams and others take these tests. They are horrible. Kids can read but it’s a better political stunt for him. These artificially reading indicators are a huge problem. Will he get reelected?
Adams’ campaign was funded by the charter billionaires. He wants to drive enrollment to charters.
Unfortunately, cutting art and music from districts has been happening for decades. If there is a shortage of money, the arts are the first to be cut.
I worked in Chicago Heights, School District #170, in Illinois for 12 years, starting there in November 1969. A referendum didn’t pass by 6 votes so elementary music and art teaching positions were eliminated. [I’m now a retired elementary beginning band and classroom music teacher.]
When music was reinstated in Chicago Heights, one teacher covered 11 schools. Half the schools had music for 1/2 hour once a week the first semester and the other schools had music for 1/2 hour the second semester. No child learns anything in this short amount of music time.
I worked as a single parent music teacher in Illinois after my divorce in 2008 until I left for Bolivia in 1996. During those years I managed to save $50 one year.
I went through four Illinois districts in 6 years. I was fired because I was high on the salary scale. I’d had years of experience and a master’s degree plus grad hours. [“High” means still not having enough money to live decently.] I made more than beginning teachers.
I eventually left the U.S. and went to teach for two years in Santa Cruz, Bolivia at the Santa Cruz Cooperative School and then to the International School of Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia for 8 years.
Music and art teachers in the United States don’t count as important.
Wow, Carol, a sad story. I wonder if you ever worked in my school district, which was then
known as Blue Island S.D. 130? (It’s now Cook County S.D. 130.) I started working during the “golden years” of ed.–1974 (PL 94-142 had just gone into effect &, so sp.ed
was working at this time: as long as you knew the law & had the Rules/Regs. @ the ready during IEP mtgs. & @ Multidisciplinary Staffings; I took a SpEd.Law course the first summer after my 1st yr., & School Law in the Fall) & prior to NCLB, although I retired in 2010, so was in for the years when everything went south. I have to give a load of credit to them s school district: Music & Art were tops, w/no attempts whatever to banish them. Also, great P.E. (in IL, schools used to have it daily) & a library in every school. & this was a school district that had a high %age of free lunchers. I have to say we were luck: had wonderful principals (one, in fact, had been the band director)& next-to-last sup’t. had great financial smarts: started a foundation, & we were good to go.
This, in a school district amid many other low-income districts, really doing well.
(As everywhere, tho, sped. coordinators & directors NOT great & always trying to muck up services to kids…we would drag principals into IEP/MDC meetings, which would generally make them stand down.) & THAT’S why I am rbmtk!
“I wonder if you ever worked in my school district, which was then
known as Blue Island S.D. 130?”
No I never worked in Blue Island but I’ve driven through that town many times. I worked in Bensenville, Berwyn, Frankfort and Markham.
A music teacher in Frankfort told me, after I’d been canned, that I was the 8th music teacher to be fired. He said that not all of them were bad teachers. The district was firing music teachers before they would get tenure. Then the district would never have to pay salaries higher up on the pay scale.
Last year my student with Down syndrome and autism started to talk because of music. This year I am not hired.