While I never had either the inclination or the talent to play, I find the decline in public music education  truly unfortunate.  Those who denigrate music as being just unnecessary fluff don't understand that the talent for music is also strongly correlated with the ability for higher math.  I have a relative who was instantly excellent on every instrument he picked up in high school.  He is now a software engineer for a Fortune 500 company due to the math ability developed at Duck U.