I do not believe music should be considered a “frill” in public schools.
1. Careers in music have had their beginning through public school programs.
One of my brothers chose to play the double bass when in fifth grade. The instrument was provided by the school, and the director of music for the city regularly toured the schools. When he heard my brother play merely on “open strings” he said, “I have my eye on that boy.” Through this humble beginning on a borrowed instrument from the public schools, my brother would become a member of one of the top 10 philharmonic orchestras in the U.S. and even solo early in his career in well-known venues in New York City and Washington, D.C. My younger brother, who was a singer, began playing the flute through the public school program and later became a professor of music at a small private college in California.
They were not alone. My high school in Fresno was the high school of Audra McDonald, who has had a big career onstage in many well-known musicals.
Many families, even if middle class, cannot afford to take the chance of buying that first instrument before knowing the talent and dedication of their child. Some families cannot afford to take the step to buy an instrument for many years. Yet, a not small number of them have made careers in music. Today, we are seeing offspring of Mexican-American and other foreign migrant and immigrant families join the immigrant and migrant children of the past in making a career in music. Today, we are accustomed to seeing Asian American names. I would like to point out that in my brother’s East Coast orchestra alone, two young women both Hispanic and from California, one from San Diego, the other from one of the humble agricultural towns of the Central Valley, won behind-the-screen auditions on horn and clarinet, respectively.
2. Not all students who are in the choir, honor orchestra, or marching band will have such careers, but their early music training contributes to their appreciation of music (and helps provide an audience) and the surrounding communities benefit from their participation in semi-professional or professional amateur choirs, bands, and ensembles. The Vocal Arts Ensemble, for example, was founded and directed by the late Gary Lamprecht who taught in the San Luis Obispo school district.
3. Many people may not realize that participation in an orchestra, marching band, or choir requires a great deal of teamwork. One must practice, not just individually but as a group, to achieve a goal. To win a place at the Rose Parade, for example, a high school marching band must win many competitions. These skills carry over into other areas of education and of life. There are research studies that show correlations between music skills and high achievement in other subjects.
I think that San Luis Coastal and other school districts in the county should reconsider cutting budget expenditures of their music departments. Lending instruments, replacing strings, and providing reeds to woodwind players are essential. ∆
Dr. Earlene Craver Leijonhufvud taught history at UC Riverside and the University of Kentucky and writes to New Times from Pismo Beach. Send a response for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Volunteers 2026.
Music and the arts are desirable components of an education. I enjoyed both. However, we are now facing severe budgetary constraints, and are forced to prioritize and determine which subjects are the most important. Few students will ever go on to practice music or art professionally. However, all of them will need to know how to read and write proficiently, perform at least basic math, and know at least some history, government, and science. Perhaps if school administrators could eliminate some of the superfluous subjects and unnecessary expenses, some funds might be freed up for music and the arts.
John:
“…we are now facing severe budgetary constraints,…” Servicing our national debt, created to bailout and subsidize the wealth of private interests, along with our military budget (Trump is literally proposing 1.5 TRILLION) is basically robbing our economic output and turning schools into drab gulags. Fortunately, it’s all about to crash. America is in a debt spiral that no one will be able to escape from. If it wasn’t for the Fed buying Treasuries, our government would collapse. We incur 1 trillion dollars of new public debt every 100 days lol, we export nothing, there’s no jobs, and most people I know consider the whole thing a joke. They see through the BS. There’s no reason to even try anymore. We are so screwed, when commercial real estate and the banks associated with it all collapse this year, there won’t be enough money to bail them out without collapsing the dollar. We are totally f___ed.
The only appropriate background music playing when this whole thing implodes this year is the song “Grinding Halt” by The Cure. That’s exactly what’s going to happen. The dollar monopoly is gone, the exorbitant privilege of printing it and exporting inflation is over, Central banks aren’t buying Treasury notes, we owe trillions, we export nothing, the petrodollar is ever. It was fun while it lasted, no one will escape this.