Band funding is not sweet music

The band program is something we as a county should be funding, at least to some degree, seeing music is a very basic part of the educational experience which we’ve long expected the private sector to bankroll.

For years we’ve been sending band members to the streets to earn their keep like musical sharecroppers. I know this because I was one of those sharecroppers nearly 25 years ago (man, I’m old), who had to work the streets to help fund the band. And, since that time, not much has changed as just Saturday I saw band members asking for donations at a roadblock downtown.

It seems like the band program, to many Warren countians, is like a good juicy steak. We all love savoring that tender T-bone but we don’t like to consider how it got from mooing and chewing its cud on the ranch to sitting with some vegetables on our plate. We like the end result, but we don’t like to be bothered with the details of how that end result was achieved.

I can already hear the opponents to this additional funding. If you’re going to fund band, then what about football, cheerleading and other activities?

Let me start by saying I’m an athletic junky and that, as things are right now, there’s a much greater chance my 9-year-old will opt for football and/or basketball over band, so really I almost have a vested interest in the athletic programs now, rather than the band, seeing I’m one of those parents you’ll see someday helping raise money for various athletic endeavors.

With that said, music transcends these extracurricular activities in that it is a basic educational item which should be open to all students, regardless of financial status or their ability to help raise money.

Right now, the band is having to buy its own basics such as band equipment. The $1,800 it gets in funding goes to get its sheet music, which is the most basic of all musical needs, that is, unless you’ve got a room full of musical experts who have an uncanny natural ability to play by ear.

As the situation is now, it’s basically requiring servitude for a student just to participate in the basic learning of music. This is where I think we are in error.

I don’t think a child should have to take on the responsibility of having to become a fund-raising machine just to learn how to play the trumpet or sax. This should be a basic educational right open to any student.

Basic band equipment should be supplied by the school system. High school students aren’t required to buy their math textbooks so band supplies should also be furnished.

Now I’m not suggesting tax dollars should pay for extracurricular trips like the recent Cotton Bowl. I believe the burden for this should be upon outside fundraising arms like the Band Boosters.

What I am saying is we should fully fund, as taxpayers, musical equipment such as certain school instruments as well as any improvements that need to be made to facilities. Money raised by the band should go to extracurricular activities, not having to fund the basics.

I know there’s only so many tax dollars to go around but I also know that some children, who may have gone on to be accomplished musicians, are being priced out of band.

Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].