By Mira Korber, guest blogger. The story is familiar. With a
tight economy and insufficient funds, public schools have to cut
back. Music, physical education, and language classes are the
first to go. And along with the classes go the teachers; since
2008, over 294,000 teaching positions have evaporated. While
some believe retaining core classes — English, History, Math —
is more important than a substantial music program, studies show
that kids who study the arts actually have greater success in
academic fields including reading and writing. In fact, global
music programs, such as the famous “El Sistema” in Venezuela,
have shown their music students have a drop-out rate of 7%
versus the national 25%. The Economic Lesson When you make a
decision, you always give something up, which is otherwise known
as your opportunity cost. With budget cuts already in place and
more on the way, school boards have to choose what stays in
school and what doesn’t. When a school board makes a decision,
there’s always some kind