Cost Of Education Essay

The Cost of Music Education and its Presence in the Education System Next, we’ll take a look at the cost of music education and the extent to which music is taught at schools. “Music education costs an average of $187 per student annually, according to a research funded by the NAMM Foundation’s Sound of Learning research initiative.” (“Study Details Costs of Music Education”). For mandatory, 45-minute music classes held every 3 days, the average cost is $195 per student annually. With about 50.7 million students in the public education system, funding for a required music course would total about $9.5 billion, which is only about 1.5% of the total amount of funding that education gets as a whole (The NCES Fast Facts Tool Provides Quick Answers To Many Education Questions). The cost is not very much compared to other core classes [insert statistics here] . Often, though, music education suffers from a lack of adequate funding and resources. Pellegrinelli notes that, although 94% of elementary schools and 91% of secondary …show more content…
The reason for low funding is not based low popularity, but can be attributed to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which focuses on higher academic achievement through standardized testing (Kratus). With an incentive of increased funding for schools that score higher on standardized tests, more emphasis is placed on math and reading and funding for music gets cut. While 94% of principals said that they believed the arts were important for schools, one third of elementary schools don’t provide music education, only 25% of high school students take art courses like music, and only 34% of schools have a music requirement (Abril and Gault). Music programs may be present in the public education system, but they are far from being treated with the same importance as math, science, english, or