In the American president Donald J. Trump's first full budget, a great deal of arguably significant programs pertaining to various aspects of education were cut. This included a $26.9 million USD cut to the "Arts in Education" program. which some consider to be unnecessary. After 2008, Common Core State Standards pushed schools to prioritize subjects such as science and math over other subjects, and on top of that, economic fluctuations have pushed schools to make severe budget cuts. Often, the first department to be affected is the arts, as it is commonly considered to be less of a priority in today's education.
However, it is imperative that we push for the arts to take center stage in education because it does something for students that other subjects simply cannot. Art programs in schools today are what keep students engaged and committed to their education. Those are the classes that students wait all day for, eyes flickering to the clock in excitement for the dawn of their art experiences.
Furthermore, art education in schools today is beneficial to students' abilities in other subjects as well. Specifically, in The Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University showed that the learning of music can increase reading and education skills, because of music and reading via common neural and cognitive mechanisms. Such benefits can apply to a wide variety of subjects including math, and science. Not only does music have this ability to affect our students' skills in various classes, but forms of art such as drawing, painting and dancing do as well.
In addition to benefiting the performance of students' in school overall, art education is beneficial to the mental health of students, which is a considerable focus of parents and teachers worldwide in this day and age. In addition, it has a wide variety of cognitive benefits. According to a 2017 report from the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging, people over 70 who did arts and crafts projects had an overall lower risk of developing mild cognitive impairments than those who simply read books for leisure. Not only this but art, specifically music, can help to boost one's mood and fight off depression. All of this and more makes art not a privilege, but a necessity in schools today.
