UpClose Music Education’s Greatest Threat By Dr. Bob Morrison he best way to predict the future is to invent it. To invent the future, we need to understand what the threats are. The greatest threat to music and all of arts education is not test-ing, uninformed administrators, or budget cuts. Although they all remain threats of concern. The greatest threat to music and arts education, in my opinion, is... the teacher shortage. The teacher shortage refers to the growing gap between music and arts educators entering the profession and those who may be leaving it. The teacher shortage in music and arts education has been created by two related contributing factors which are important to understand. T “Arts education has been severely diminished in public educa-tion over the past 30 years.” Washington National Opera “Arts instruction in schools is on a downward trend.” President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities “Public school arts education is virtually dead.” Michael Kaiser, former president, Kennedy Center for the Arts The fact is these statements are not true . To borrow a quote from Mark Twain “The reports of my death have been greatly ex-aggerated.” And so too have the reports of the death of music and arts education in the United States. The Facts In 20 states where comparable data is available through the National Arts Education Data Project measuring student course enrollment during the school day, over 80% of schools o er two or more arts disciplines, most frequently music and visual art. Not 0%. Not 50%. Eighty percent! I am not dismissing the importance of those with fewer disci-plines or none. However, this is a long way from “arts programs are disappearing.” In fact, 91% of schools o er some courses in an arts discipline during the school day for credit and grade. This represents 96% of all students. Now, where I come from 96% of students having access to arts instruction is not zero. This is not “virtually dead.” When we look at arts participation rates, we see… 88% elementary, 65% middle, 47% high, and 58% in mixed The Big Myth For the better part of the last 20 years (going back to the pas-sage of No Child Left Behind) there has been this perpetuated myth that music and arts education programs in the U.S. are dis-appearing. This myth appears in newspaper headlines, fundrais-ing appeals, entertainment awards shows, and is repeated over and over to the point this myth becomes reality. Some examples: “House committee passes budget with steep cuts.” Doesn’t in-clude money for full-day pre-kindergarten, teacher incentive pay, arts education, and numerous other school programs. NBC5 Texas “Florida legislation e ectively eliminates music education.” Or-lando Sentinel 10 School Band & Orchestra • April 2022