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Elyria Schools’ cuts: No winners here
I read the proposal put forth by the Elyria Schools last week with much dismay.
Among other things, it calls for wiping out the art, music and gym teachers for those in kindergarten through third grade. The programs themselves won’t be eliminated, but rather they’ll become the responsibility of the homeroom teacher and not taught by a specialist.
Now trust me, I get the financial perils of school districts. I know that despite the many promises, the lottery didn’t save the schools. (Well, it might have had the Ohio Legislature not pulled money out of the school pot when it dropped the lottery money in, but …) And I know that the Ohio Legislature isn’t rushing out to fix school funding despite the declarations of unconstitutionality more than once.
Schools need money. People don’t have it. It’s a vicious circle, and our kids are suffering for it.
And what bothers me the most is that it isn’t important to our state and national leaders that a district such as Elyria — where some of the students aren’t exposed to music and art at home — is being forced to carve away at those programs in a budget balancing act that probably won’t be enough, regardless.
There have been numerous studies showing that exposure to the arts can enhance a child’s learning ability. And at such a young age? To me, that’s when you capture and intrigue their imaginations of what can be.
My daughter looks forward to Wednesdays, which is art, music and gym day at Windsor School. It’s a happy, sort of carefree day — a midweek break that sends her racing from the school each day singing songs, recounting art stories and telling me about what they did in gym.
Such days give my daughter’s wonderful first-grade teacher, Mrs. Tribby, some time to regroup and fine-tune lesson plans gauged for her students’ strengths and needs, and it gives my daughter the chance to interact with new teachers, which is something my teacher-phobic daughter needs after a rough kindergarten year.
Do I think Mrs. Tribby can incorporate art, music and gym into her classroom? I’m pretty certain since she seems adept at handling everything that is thrown at her and she already knows the value of singing — her class sings every morning in a reading exercise that the kids adore.
But do I think it that those programs will be as strong as if a specialist were providing them? Of course not. Mrs. Tribby’s focus is teaching our children to read and to do math and to prepare them for second grade. That’s already a big enough hurdle given the backgrounds of some of the children.
In my own case, my daughter is lucky enough to have exposure to art and music at home. She’s made it her personal quest to visit an art museum every time we hit the road, and she even found a very modern museum in Virginia Beach to her liking, which surprised me.
But what about those kids who don’t have such opportunities?
I’m frustrated — as are many of you, since I get the calls at The Chronicle — that the funding for schools never has been fixed. But I also know that if we wait for the Ohio Legislature to fix it, the pieces and parts will be cut away that allow Elyria to offer a rich, rewarding education to our kids.
I truly believe that a city’s school system is a main force in why someone chooses where to live, and that it is up to us to figure this out if we want to keep (and enhance) Elyria’s reputation as a great place to raise a family.
–Julie Wallace
Unfortunately, the mismanagement of the Elyria schools – for decades – has finally come home to roost. People are unwilling to pay and, in many cases cannot afford to pay, more school taxes. With reduced funding a given, would you rather have less math or less art? Would you rather have less reading/writing or less music? Students “escape” from High School unable to read/write or do the math which is required for many jobs. No longer can semi-educated and/or semi-literate people walk into an auto plant and get a job. The skill set required for most jobs is significantly more sophisticated. Citizens would like to have all things, but exiting High School with skills enabling students to get a job are more important. Sad, but this is real life.
You are spot on: Less math isn’t acceptable.
And I get the funding, trust me. We own our home in Elyria, and we’ve watched the value plummet as everything rises in costs.
As I tried to say, and maybe it wasn’t real clear, is that it frustrates me that there isn’t a better funding formula overall. Other countries with far lesser means than the U.S. find ways to put a premium on education for their children. We don’t. That’s what peeves me – if there is any country in the world that should be first in education, it should be us.
–Julie
I also understand music and art is important, but how long can we support these things when rumor has it our children have to share textbooks? Can someone verify this rumor or put an end to it?
Also, does anyone know how much say the football program costs the schools? Or the baseball, softball, tennis, soccer, golf, or whatever programs actually cost? Why doesn’t the school put out an actual breakdown of costs to all programs? Maybe there is somewhere this info is available, but I’m not aware of it. We deserve to know, I think.
I can’t speak for the whole district, obviously, but I know in my daughter’s classroom, they aren’t sharing textbooks. (Note: she’s little, so textbooks aren’t exactly a big issue at that age, either.)
For the record, I’m partial to sports. I played them in high school and found my participation forced me to become more organized and more disciplined about my schoolwork — I knew I had to get stuff done in a limited amount of time I had due to practice and games. I also saw sports as a great character builder as they taught me about teamwork, sacrifice and, unfortunately, how to lose gracefully. (Trust me, that was a HARD lesson.)
They also forced me to keep an eye on my grades because they couldn’t drop or else I’d be booted from the team. There are many times in my job I find myself reciting something this coach or that coach said to me all those years ago — so the lessons learned on the sporting field have stuck around.
Again, my point is that the funding system is flawed. I want kids to come out of school fully formed with a variety of opportunities presented to them to determine which path they should take in life.
I just find it deplorable that — in a country that says repeatedly that education is important — we are faced with cutting things that enhance education. Even the librarians at the elementary schools are being cut, for goodness sakes.
And Elyria’s situation isn’t unique — it’s becoming the norm. And to me, that’s sad and shows how little value we as a nation actually do place on education.
–Julie
what happened to the money from lottery sales? Was that just another joke?
No, lottery profits do go to the schools. But what happened was the legislature dropped the lottery money into the account that is used to fund schools and subsequently pulled out the money that the state used to put there — meaning the lottery money didn’t really add to the funding, it simply replaced funding. That’s the clearest way I can explain it, so I hope it made sense.
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