The San Luis Coastal Unified School District (SLCUSD) is navigating an incredibly difficult process right now, dealing with multimillion-dollar budget cuts. This situation is undoubtedly challenging, and tough choices need to be made. However, I am writing to strongly urge you to reconsider the proposed elimination of the entire music program budget line item of $150,000, which has been inadequately labeled as “Band and Musical Instrument/repair.”
During a recent Music Boosters meeting, we learned the full scope of this proposed cut. It is a critical mischaracterization to present this as a minor or supplemental reduction of instrument purchase and repair. This single line item encompasses the entire operational budget allocated for music education across our district. While the funding does cover essential instrument repair—which is vital for any functional music program—it also supports numerous other critical functions:
- reeds to play the instruments with
- busing and transportation
- new music and copies
- renting out a venue (PAC) that has enough seats for the parents
- mallets, sticks, strings, bows
- uniforms
This is akin to having PE with no rackets or balls or hoops—but not quite. You cannot play the flute without a functioning flute.
And about instrument repair: It is rare that a student is able to afford to buy their own $1,800 tuba in our district. Forty-year-old instruments do need repairing and maintenance. Our music and choir teachers do as much as they can, but some repairs need specialists. This budget cut, if passed, will gut the program and strand the students, not just reduce the ability to fix instruments, buy supplies, or get busing. This will have a devastating impact on student access to what is the only remaining fine arts program at Los Osos Middle School, a program which 1 in 3 students have been a part of, and nearly all—above 95 percent—say it is their favorite class. I believe the other schools have much the same experience as Los Osos and Morro Bay High School.
It was proposed to use Proposition 28 funds for these supports—however, this is illegal. Proposition 28 is meant to supplement arts programs, not supplant them, using this money for supports violates the funding’s 80/20 salary/other items ratio. Parents at Boosters are skeptical this is a temporary cut, as the district has never replaced elementary music when it said it would. Now, it will fade in middle school.
We have multiple Title I schools in our district. Basing a core curriculum item on a student’s ability to afford an instrument or supplies risks violating educational equity principles and could jeopardize Title I compliance. Federal and state laws emphasize equitable access to education for all students, especially in Title I schools that serve high populations of students from low-income families.
We are reaching out to as many people as we can and making a lot of noise. I personally will be missing my son’s band concert on Dec. 16 to come to the board meeting to make a stand. Booster members are contacting SLCUSD board members and trying to reach as many influential community members—many who were in band—as possible. I ask: Who is going to play at the pep rallies? Games? On what instruments will they be playing if this money gets cut? Music and arts are core curriculum—not extracurricular, like sports, which has a much bigger budget. Unlike sports, every student plays. Every student is on the “team.”
By the way, in the country’s best schools, the arts (band, choir, fine art) are considered highly important. They are viewed not as expendable “extras,” but as integral to a well-rounded education that enhances academic achievement, fosters life skills, and prepares students. They correlate to academic success and higher test scores—students who take four years of arts and music classes score significantly higher on the SAT than those with less arts coursework. Music and arts involvement is associated with gains in math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skills—all things our students need!
There is higher student engagement, better attendance, and fewer disciplinary issues. Students engaged in the arts are more likely to earn a high school diploma and attend a more competitive college. The arts encourage “out-of-the-box” thinking and problem-solving, build confidence and self-expression, and performances build self-esteem. Band and choir require students to work together, communicate, and respect differing parts that are played. And learning an instrument, memorizing lines for choir, or mastering a new fingering or range teaches patience, discipline, and long-term goal setting. Cutting music supports will help facilitate absenteeism, lower grades, lower test scores, and create less well-rounded students.
We believe the community will stand behind us, and we believe that the district cannot keep cutting arts and expecting better results. We will be there to fight for our kids, our schools, and our programs.
If the district were to make it clear that the funding will stand, that would be great. However, parents will still be at the meeting, missing the big concert, because if we don’t speak up now, there will be no concert next year—there will be no money to rent a venue big enough.
And that is sad. ∆
Maeve Holden is a Music Boosters parent who writes to New Times from Los Osos. Write a response for publication by emailing it to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Dec 11-18, 2025.
“First they came for the violins
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a violin…”
This is how it always begins. Eliminate the things that stir the soul, the violins, the flutes, the sculptures, the brushes, the canvas, and the paint. Replace it with nothing but STEM subjects, after all, engineers pay more in taxes than pop artists. The only problem is we now live in a society where we no longer need STEM majors. Why crank out civil engineers when the government no longer spends or is too indebted to repair our decaying bridges and ports? Why crank out computer scientists when AI can recursively code itself? When is someone going to Cal Poly’s graduates they have no future? If anything, “Nearer, my God, to Thee” should be played during commencement speeches because, after all, we are sinking like the Titanic. Students are nothing more than deck chairs being rearranged as we sink. I say let them play some music, actually, maybe a solemn fugue would be more in line at this point. I hear one Everytime I wake up now.
Do we really need more sax and violins in our culture?
The point isn’t whether there are more musical instruments on our culture, its our priorities. What good does money matter if you live in a world that is dead quite and grey. As a man of letters, John, why not just get rid of English classes along with music appreciation classes? Would you rather live amongst the illiterate, or is that perhaps the actual plan? After all, art and music can be revolutionary and words are what are used to transmit ideas. I mean, wasn’t it African- American slaves that could get flogged for daring to try and learn how to read? God forbid a human learn how to read. Music and books are what helped me survive childhood. Maybe they mean little you, John, because in what I can only presume was a very settled, safe, abundant childhood never compelled you to find a similar escape. That must have been nice. My late mother was a drunk and my late father was on ice in state prison. Eating on a regular basis was perpetually in question.
Thank you, Mr. Fly, very well stated.
Yes! And any other musical instruments students favor.
Speaking of books, music, and revolution, here’s a short list of ones that inspired me:
1984
Les Miserable
Fucault: Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A report on the banality of evil.
The Trial by Kafka
Etc, etc, etc
Music:
Rich men north of Richmond
Burnin’ and Lootin’ by Bob Marley
Brother Can You Spare a Dime
Holy Wars by Megadeth
Etc….
A country, state or society that turns it’s back on school music is a dead in the water society that places little value on human creativity, joy, beauty, and good things that lift the human spirit. Personally I’d like to see a hundred violins, saxes, French horns and electric guitars in the schools…….a municipal band like the county band or atascadero community band is a good alternative to schools that do not prize the arts like they always should. Meanwhile the investment in war and in draconian laws seems more important in America than it’s heart and soul . John rdwards
Yes! And any other musical instruments students favor.