[Music] at just 11 years old at tarva Jory already plays three instruments he credits the fifth grade music program at his former Elementary School for sparking his interest that makes me feel pretty satisfied yeah like uh yeah pretty happy whether we are School directors but facing a $26 million budget shortfall the NorthShore School District recently voted to eliminate the fifth grade band and Orchestra in my mind I was like wait why are they doing this they they shouldn't actually cut down mu
sic says it'll save the district $780,000 per year community members have been fighting to save the program but the district considers it a done deal the teachers union has agreed to the cuts but music teacher Melissa Newman says the budget isn't final until July and there is still room for negotiation I feel like it's the right thing to do but also you know when I was a little girl I promised myself that when I was a big kid I would um stand up for the little kids families have One Last Hope Dr
John Benham has worked to save school music programs across the country with some success he says eliminating fifth grade programs often end up costing more in the long run either through bigger class sizes or lower enrollment if you start Elementary instrumental music later than grade five you'll lose 65% enrollment within four years at the secondary level so that will cause a significantly greater increase in class size and what they're thinking as for Atara he has his own ideas about how to
save money cut a small part of PE a very small fraction of Music um a small fraction of library and uh so forth rather than just uh blowing it off and cutting music once and for all a district spokesperson tells King five that everybody Wishes the situation was different but until the state fully funds public education will continue to see situations like this live in Bothel Eric Wilkinson King 5 News
Comments
As a former musician on a violin and bass, this sucks to hear. Learning instruments are much harder to learn, let alone retain that skill over a long period of time. Music has proven to be a positive impact on the kid's overall education and social interaction. How about politicians and board director's pay cut instead of this nonsense? Seriously, Washington used to be pretty competitive in the late 2010s, now it's falling off.
You need to start a kid at around first, or second grade. We didn't have a music class in grade school, there was a traveling music teacher with an auto harp. ♪♪♪ My parents sent me to a private piano teacher.
The teachers union only cares about their pensions. Music programs teach students to think. That's dangerous to their existence. "It's cool to be stupid" come on kids chant along......