Where Does The Money Come From?

It's an issue that troubles every possible plan for every possible endeavor; money. Money is quite obviously one of the biggest necessities humans have in life. It is the means by which one can acquire anything, be it food, clothing, shelter, transportation, entertainment, and even health. Money provides for the ability to have all these things. What's more is that the more money you have then typically the more advanced all these things listed become (i.e. entertainment becomes the ability to go on a seven day cruise in Hawaii vs. sitting at home with a friend playing monopoly all night). It makes sense then that in order for a music program to flourish and ultimately reach it's fullest potential that money be a critical necessity to facilitate this possibility.

So where is this money supposed to come from? One would hope that this money comes from the school board and perhaps even the state, and if one is really lucky then a federal grant would be much appreciated. However one should not over look the simple fact that students in music programs are funded and supported by their parents. Whether this be by taking them to the music store to purchase a new reed or paying for a field trip to go to a competition in another state, parents are constantly providing their children, and ultimately the music program they are apart of, with funds. So it is only logical then that schools ask parents to be more aware of this reality and come up with ways to aid their child's music program. Of course there are families who can only give so much and this is true for quite a number of parents in quite a number of school districts. So how do schools help these families out, especially if the majority of the families in these school systems are low-income? How much should the school expect these parents to continue to give?



When is enough enough?

I came across an article speaking of this very issue and thought it was a very plausible, potentially great way to at least begin to address this matter. The article can be read here and it speaks about how in California, school boards are getting input from parents on how to better use the money to fund different aspects of the school and it's programs. The good part about this is that parents and schools who want to have music well funded will do so in a manner that helps everyone involved. The bad news is that if there are parents and schools that feel music is "nonessential" to their child's development then little to no funds could be provided to the music programs, so long as everyone in these meetings votes to do this. Peter Schneider has written a blog about this very issue here.

Its very disheartening to think of the negatives of this type of funding, but it could be very exciting to think of the good that can come out of this if there is enough support to push it into the right direction.

If you ask me parents should fund their children's activities because that's just good parenting; giving your child the best they can receive to grow into the best adult possible. So funding for a band/orchestra/jazz/choir (BOCJ) program should be a given. However, the amount should not be taxing to the family. Families should only contribute whatever they can manage and be helped the rest of the way by those who have access to much more money and who are supposed to be using it for specific purposes.

In order to run a BOCJ program in this day and age with iPads and more interactive technology being implemented into the school systems, to me it seems that fundraising and parent funding isn't enough. Its going to have to be the school systems as well and with laws like the ones listed above this is a problem that has a very potentially exciting solution if it is backed by enough people who care. Since the money has to come from somewhere, why not make it come from a little bit of everywhere? That sounds pretty reasonable to me.