Readers React: Underfunded arts classes are an educational disgrace for LAUSD

To the editor: Exposing young people to the arts is life altering, but that transformative experience is being denied to too many Los Angeles Unified School District students. (“Only 35 L.A. public schools get an A in supporting the arts” Nov. 3)

Throughout my 34-year teaching career, I incorporated music, art and drama in my lessons. The students walked into my classroom with classical music playing as they prepared for the day. They used watercolors, paint and colored pencils. At the end of history units, we would create a small production summarizing what was learned, which helped the students immensely on tests.

As a result, students learned respect and self-confidence. They were excited to learn and exchange ideas while mastering the curriculum. I personally bought most of the supplies needed.

Businesses need to support the arts in their local schools. We must not lose another generation to testing. The arts help us cope with life’s challenges, and no one should be denied them in our schools.

Dee White, Capistrano Beach

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To the editor: The management of arts instruction in Los Angeles schools is shameful, miserly, shortsighted and tragic. Art and music are always the first classes to be cut whenever the fiscal weather turns cold, and the last to be restored when it warms up again.

And why are art and music always explained — from advocates, even — by way of their benefits to other disciplines? Surely, they help with math and English and with “balancing the brain.” But math and English never require such backhanded praise. Neither should music or art, which are great and beneficial all on their own.

Let school kids have “do-re-mi” right along with “1-2-3” and “A-B-C,” like they used to. The cost of a robust arts program in Los Angeles could be covered by about 5% of the price of a B-2 bomber.

Brad Kay, Venice

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To the editor: Thank you for your story on the need for improvement in funding arts education. However, the article missed one important aspect of the disparity in arts programs among L.A.’s schools.

In addition to the excellent but insufficiently and inequitably funded arts education that takes place during regular school hours, after-school programs also play a huge role in providing opportunities for young people in Los Angeles to engage in a wide variety of visual and performing arts.

As a part of L.A. Unified’s Beyond the Bell Division, LA’s BEST After School Enrichment Program — which was founded in 1988 by Mayor Tom Bradley as a partnership of the city, the school district and the private sector — serves more than 25,000 elementary school students in 194 schools in Los Angeles’ most economically distressed neighborhoods.

The program provides visual arts, music, dance, drama and poetry classes; it also features artists and educators-in-residence. Each 10-week residency concludes with a special culmination event to celebrate the talent and accomplishments of the children.

L.A. Unified has many other community-based partners that provide arts programs as well. While this work does not resolve the issues raised in the article, after-school programs make valuable contributions worth recognizing and supporting.

Eric Gurna, Los Angeles

The writer is president and chief executive of LA’s BEST After School Enrichment Program.

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