We spend plenty on football equipment for about 40 students a year though. Most HS's have no decent language lab, but they sure pay a ton for football uniforms and insurance. No one ever gets killed learning a FL, but every year football kills several dozen HS kids and wounds many more for the rest of their lives.
Math, well, there is just no excuse. True, learning math is boring, maybe even more so than FL's, but jeez, everyone needs math. About 80% of the faculty at my college seems to need someone else to do their income taxes. With the programs that are available, that is just pathetic.
The issue of music programs getting cut because there isn't enough funding is a sore subject with me. In our district, the music program begins in 4th grade with a mandatory song flute unit. Kids who want to continue in band begin classes in 5th grade. We've got two high schools in town, and the one my kids attended offered the best music program. Our school's orchestra has been one of the highest rated in the state for many years and was at one time the only full symphony orchestra at the high school level; every spring the kids travel to a major competition (Hawaii one year, NYC another).
The only reason that the program was able to keep running was because of the Booster Club's participation. We have an arrangement with the local Bingo Hall, where we provide all the volunteers to run Bingo one night a week and in return we receive a percentage of the proceeds. At one point, we had such a hard time getting volunteers to work that the Bingo Hall was going to take our night away - less workers meant we had trouble getting around to the players to sell games, etc. which meant the players were impatient and grumbling about the lines - which led to fewer people showing up to play on our night...your basic vicious cycle, but one which drastically affected the music program.
Instead, music programs are suffering because of budget cuts and are forced to seek creative methods to raise enough money to keep the programs afloat...even when it's been established that there's a connection between music instruction (especially piano) and the ability to learn math. You'd think that the schools would use this to help facilitate teaching math. There was a study done that measured the effects of music lessons on three year olds. The results showed that children who received voice and keyboard lessons scored between eight and ten points higher on IQ tests that measured spatial-temporal skills ? important components of mathematical reasoning.
But the athletic programs continue to be fully funded.
Now, I realize the importance of athletic programs in high schools. All of my kids played soccer. But the reality is that out of all the kids who play high school sports, very few of them are good enough to continue playing in college; even fewer will play professionally. That means that a lot on money is going to support activities that the majority of the participating students won't continue after they graduate.
However, the ability to understand and use math is something that every student needs. Schools have a tool available to them that can help students succeed in math, and they're ignoring it. That makes absolutely no sense to me...but then again, I've never quite understood the need for our high school to have JV and Varsity badminton teams, either. I can understand football, baseball, basketball, wrestling, soccer, swimming, and track and field...but badminton? Please. Golf as a high school sport is another waste, as far as I'm concerned.
I'm not saying to shut down the athletic departments and get rid of all of the sports programs...just put the music programs on an equal footing. And start the music programs earlier. I'd wager that we'd see a significant increase in not only math test scores, but in English and science as well.
