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Home › Articles › Back to School Headquarters › Advocating for the Arts

Advocating for the Arts

Building Morale, Attendance and Educational Skills With the Arts

Part One

By Kim Byrum Skinner

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part study conducted by the GCAC and completed last year surveyed Franklin County, Ohio's 16 public school districts at both district and school building levels, and also examined public arts education programs available through community organizations.

Part I of the report, the schools' survey, generated a "phenomenal" rate of return 100 percent at the district level and nearly 100 percent among school buildings. Among the survey's key findings: "Franklin County is way ahead of the curve."

Sixty-nine percent of Franklin County public school districts report they're in compliance with national art education standards, compared to just 31 percent statewide. Furthermore, 94 percent reported use of Ohio's model competency-based program for arts education, compared to 88 percent throughout Ohio.

Education officials report wide variation in arts budgets, with spending ranging from $21,000 to $3 million per year. Similarly, student population varies, too, ranging as low as 3,000 or less in some districts and as high as 64,000 in others. Overall, arts education expenditures account for about 1.6 percent of the aggregate budget for all 16 districts, combined.

"There's a lot of public rhetoric out there of, 'When funding gets tight, when the economy gets bad, the arts are the first things to go,'" Katz says. "There's a lot of argument and a lot of harsh sentiment out there about that fact, but when the Greater Columbus Arts Council, in its capacity as a steward of arts education in central Ohio, asks the question, 'Well if that's true, then by how much? How much has it been cut and what's been cut?' Well, no one can answer those questions. Because there's no real data. It's all anecdote and it's all perception.

"I'm not saying it's not sometimes true, but no one can quantify it." says Katz. "And the reason for that is there's been no baseline data. So we've set to the task of creating a set of baseline data, so that 10 years from now, if that argument is still being made, we can say, 'You know what? That's true. Here's how much it was cut over the last 10 years.' Or we can say, 'You know what? It's not really true.' But we need to be in a position to be informed, so that was the point of doing this stuy."

The GCAC study also reported more than 500 instances of partnership between Franklin County public schools and arts or cultural organizations, with 73 percent occurring in elementary schools and another 26 percent among middle and high schools.

Partnerships produce a wide range of outside-the-box benefits ranging from student field trips, guest artists and performers to quality materials and professional expertise.

"It means they're engaged in programs offered by arts and culture organizations," Katz says. "The collaboration can take a variety of forms. It's not just the sort of classic model of putting kids on the bus and visiting the museum, although that's definitely part of it."

Additionally, schools reported over 600 usages of "other local sources" everything from arts councils and universities to libraries and parks and recreation programs to specifically supplement arts education.

"There's a lot of interaction going on," says Katz. "There are resources being accessed. On the other hand, it's clear that there could be a lot more being accessed than is currently being accessed. I mean, we're talking about a total student population in Franklin County in the public schools of something like 140,000 students."

Innovative Programs
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