Toting empty violin and trombone cases, Fairfax County studentsappeared at School Board hearings for three days last week toprotest potential cuts to the instrumental music program in theworst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
With their parents, teachers and a former music director for theU.S. Air Force Band, they said cuts would be academically,economically and personally detrimental.
'If these programs go,' said a sixth-grade girl at Bonnie BraeElementary School, 'then we can't play the music coming from ourhearts.'
Music education advocates are among the most organized schoolactivists in Fairfax. As unprecedented cutbacks in school spendingare being proposed across the Washington region, parents are takingon a role that for many is well rehearsed. They have appealed tocash-strapped state and county officials for funds to protect thehigh-quality, well-rounded education they expect for their children.
'We are the people who champion music,' Margaret J. Flynn, whohas two children in the band at Lake Braddock Secondary School, toldFairfax Superintendent Jack D. Dale and the School Board. 'We willsoldier on. But we need you to lead the charge' by fighting for fullschool funding, she said.
Several times in the 1990s, instrumental programs -- specifically, fourth-grade strings classes -- were placed on thechopping block in Fairfax. The potential savings were small comparedwith the school system's overall budget. But each time, the proposalgenerated public hearings packed with young violinists and concernedparents and provoked letters and phone calls to county supervisorsand board members.
T. Dana Kauffman, a former county supervisor, called that a'classic public administration approach' to building a budget. 'It'sthe Washington Monument approach,' he said. 'If you tried to cut theNational Park Service budget, the first thing they would say wouldhave to be closed is the Washington Monument.'
In other words, programs that make a short list of those thatmight be cut tend to energize a core of supporters. They are parentswho moved to Fairfax for the schools and who are committed toprograms that set their children's education apart from the standardschool fare. They will launch e-mail campaigns and go to hearingsand vote.
Dale said the programs that might be cut are chosen not forpolitical reasons but because state laws and school board prioritiesprotect core academic subjects, making arts, sports and foreignlanguage programs more vulnerable in a recession.
Facing a third year of falling tax revenue and increasingenrollments and a $176 million budget hole to fully fund existingprograms, board members say anything beyond the basics is at seriousrisk.
Dale's proposed $2.3 billion budget for the fiscal year thatbegins July 1 would increase class size by an average of onestudent, cut 600 positions, gut summer school, eliminate freshmansports and close an alternative school.
If the county does not approve an additional $58 million transferof funding, he said, the board could cut a popular foreign languageimmersion program and roll back full-day kindergarten classes. Theentire elementary band and strings program -- not just fourth-grade strings -- could be eliminated.
County revenue funds about three-quarters of the Fairfax schoolsystem's budget. Supervisors cannot make decisions about how moneyis spent, but they set the tax rate and decide how much moneyschools will get. In an annual ritual, parents have lobbiedaggressively for full funding of school programs, and for manyyears, school funding increased while other county services were cutor endured flat spending.
Sharon Bulova, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said thatpublic schools remain her 'personal highest priority' but that withrevenue shortfalls 'in the hundreds of millions of dollars, thatshortfall will be extremely difficult to address.'
The elimination of the elementary instrumental music classeswould affect about 25,000 students, more than 80 percent of those infourth, fifth and sixth grade, and ultimately would devastate thenationally recognized band and orchestra programs, advocates say. Itwould save $7 million and cut 117 positions.
With the suggested cut, Dale roused a sleeping giant, the FairfaxArts Coalition for Education. Throughout the 1990s, the coalition ofparents, band directors, students and other arts boosters keptpublic hearings filled. Advocates often recall the 1977 School Boarddecision that cut fifth-grade band instruction. It was restored thenext year, but it took 13 years to recover lost enrollment, theysay.
In 2000, the group's advocacy crescendoed when Leonard Slatkin,then conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra, stepped to thepodium at the Fairfax County Government Center during a budgethearing and shared stories of his elementary music classes. 'Thegrowth of our young people depends on decisions you are about tomake. Keep that growth and spirit alive. Please do not take themusic away from the children,' he said.
Instrumental music programs have not faced cuts since. Until now.
Denny Stokes, a retired high school band teacher in Fairfax and aparent coordinator for the arts coalition, said parents understandwhat is at stake this year and are willing to partner with schoolofficials to secure the funding needed to maintain high-caliberschools. They have gathered 11,400 signatures on a petition andcommissioned a cost-benefit analysis of the potential cuts.
'We will be there, side by side with them, to ask the supervisorsfor funding. We will pay what we need to and thank all these peopleat the ballot box when the time comes,' Stokes said.
chandlerm@washpost.com
