ARE THE ARTS DEAD IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS? Zocalo Square Project Los Angeles

We’d love for our schools to teach Billy to play the tuba or draw an elephant, but the money isn’t there for it. Few California public schools spend more than a couple of percentage points of their budget on education in the arts, and funding has been scarce for decades now. So what is to be done? In advance of “An Evening With Debbie Allen,” a Zócalo event, we asked several educators and professionals if the arts in California’s public schools were dead and, if so, what, besides money, might revive them. Here is what they said.

LACY DARRYL PHILLIPS

The arts will only live if we care

As a child, I was afforded all types of arts classes in school, including music, painting, choir, acting, and speech. It was impossible to imagine these valuable resources would ever become extinct! Well, they have, and it’s not conducive to a culturally rich and positive society.

The arts are dead in California’s public schools, and we all are at risk of the “idle mind” and “Devil’s playground.” We have witnessed a rapid decrease in funding over the past decade in all areas of the arts. These important tools are taken away from our children without an equivalent replacement. This leaves them to look to other means of satisfaction and escape, usually for the worst.

I believe the best way to revive the arts in California’s public schools is for each one of us to become proactive in the nurturing of our youth and to provide hands-on lessons, demonstrations, and workshops. We should use our voices, band together, and confront our politicians on a local and government level.

We all complain about injustice, yet very few of us do anything about it. We can peacefully become an integral part of the solution and not fuel the power of the problem. Parents, educators, and the children should come together to bring more light to the issue. We are only as strong as our weakest link!

Lacy Darryl Phillips (LDP) aka “Uncle Earl” is currently creator/producer of “The Ultimate Underground Experience,” a global music, arts and education project. Phillips is host/DJ of his weekly radio program “The Underground Experience,” which airs on KLED Live FM and The Southern Star Network. More information at www.UltimateUnderground.com.

EDITOR: T.A. FRANK.