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Win the Funding Game

With tightened budgets, cuts in federal grants, and a more cautious public, the funding crisis in public school music programs will require the combined efforts of parents, teachers, and administrators. Executives at MENC, the National Education Association, and the American Music Conference, agree that the entire music program should be financed by the school board. But a realistic assessment is that fund raising has been and will continue to be necessary. As programs in the public schools are cut more drastically, though, music educators must look beyond the traditional methods of selling food and holding car washes to ways of obtaining financial support for the whole music program. The need for upgraded programs, enthusiastic parent and community support, and guidelines for outside funding is clear. In discussing traditional funding, Dave Darland, director of instruction at the National Education Association, warns that "the exploitation of youth is a dangerous thing," and emphasizes the need for music educators to focus more on the "search for excellence" than on competition. In reestablishing priorities, teachers can curtail some of the traditional funding drives and concentrate instead on total financial support. According to Howard Doolan, supervisor of music for Dade County (Florida) Public Schools, three categories of activities in the music program require three different sources of funding. Instructional materials, such as sheet music, instruments, and classroom aids, should be supplied by tax sources, while schoolrelated activities can be funded by either tax sources or by internal money that the school board is willing to allocate to the program. Outside financing should be limited to non-school-related activities that are sponsored by an outside group.