Dear Community Members:
Thank you for your heartfelt comments regarding the 4th & 5th grade strings program. I know first hand about the program. I was a strings program participant at Lindbergh Elementary School in 1977. I know that strings are a very beloved program within our district. However, I don’t believe that our community understands the complexity of our budgetary challenges. This is not something you merely can “bake sale”, “brat fest” or write grants to solve.
Because of this, I feel compelled to write you and speak my truth about what is going on in the Madison Metropolitan School District. The school district has had a budget shortfall for many years. This is why you have seen 4th and 5th grade strings on a cut list for the past several years. This is why you’ll see many more programs that benefit our students on cut lists in the future. State revenue caps, unfunded federal mandates and rising costs associated with running a school district will contribute to funding gaps. This year, the district has an $8.6 million dollar gap. The Administration has proposed cutting 1.2 million, which doesn’t include the strings program. The majority of the school board has chosen to ask taxpayers via referendum to make up the difference for the $7.4 million dollar shortage. In addition to the strings program, also on the cut list are programs and positions such as specials teachers, stress challenge course, psychologists, social workers, coordinators, custodians, librarians, rising of class sizes, parent-teacher conferences and many other things that are in the best interests of our students no matter their race, ethnicity, family income status or ability.
Many people have written the board about the cost of the strings program in comparison to the budget. The cost of the strings program is around $500,000. That is not much when you consider the budget is 319 million dollars. However, priorities must be made. While suggestions of making small reductions to other parts of the budget sounds good in theory, it could have unintended consequences that could be disastrous to school district programming and curriculum. It also doesn’t speak to each individual board members budgetary priorities or preferences. In my opinion, all the people and programs in our district are important to the success of all of our students. Unfortunately, they’re not all equaled depending on you or your child’s best interests but all very important as I see them being a member of the Board of Education. This is why I’m choosing to support a referendum so that all the programs can be spared.
This is a very serious situation. This situation is not unique to Madison. This is a problem with many school districts across Wisconsin and the entire country. Unfortunately, there are not enough financial resources to go around. Even though this is the case, I am personally committed to having a strings program in the Madison Metropolitan School District. However, it must meet the budgetary requirements. Should a referendum not pass on May 24th, it is highly doubtful that the strings program that is currently implemented will exist unless someone donates a half million-dollars specifically targeting the strings program to the district. This person would have to make this commitment each and every year.
Even though the district’s financial outlook is bleak, I have been imploring school board members, Superintendent Rainwater, Central Administrative staff and the interim Fine Arts Coordinator to explore all available budgetary and scheduling options. I have also been taking suggestions from Principals and music and strings teachers. I’m cautiously optimistic that we can find creative solutions however, a referendum would give our district the best opportunity to continue wonderful programming that benefits all of our students.
I thank you for your passion of the strings program and hope that you will consider supporting the operating referendum on Tuesday May 24th and encourage others to do so as well.
Johnny Winston, Jr.
Madison School Board member
As a former member of the Rapid City (SD) Board of Education, I faced a similar threatened cut in our elementary orchestra program several years ago. The Rapid City board, after hearing the advise of a school music budget expert who analyzed our entire music program, came to the conclusion that it would actually cost more in the long run to cut our elementary orchestra program due to “reverse economics.”
Let me explain with this caveat: every district’s music programs are structured a bit differently, so each district must run a long-term analysis of its music programs using its own data. If the district does not have this data readily available, they are being managed poorly.
Most districts’ music programs share the following characteristics:
(1) the elementary orchestra/strings programs are expensive (because of pull outs, specialized teachers, equipment, etc.)
(2) however, middle school and high school programs are usually more cost effective than a “normal” academic class because of higher student to teacher ratios (generally 1.5 to 3.0 times the number of students are in an orchestra class versus a “normal” academic class)
(3) doing anything which lessens the number of students in middle and high school strings programs inevitably decreases the economic efficiency of the upper level strings programs
(4) you start with a certain number of students taking up a stringed instrument and face a yearly attrition between grades of students taking stringed instrument instruction the next year
(5) the later you start instrument instuction, the fewer students end up taking that instruction and the more attrition you have between grades
(6) cutting the beginning number of students taking up an instrucment and increasing the attrition rate between grades results inevitably in fewer students taking strings in middle and high school
(7) obviously, this reduces the cost effectiveness of your middle and high school strings programs
(8) not so obviously, you now have to hire more teachers to teach those kids who would have been in your middle and high school strings programs, but who are in a “normal” class with a lower student to teacher ratio.
When we ran the numbers in Rapid City, we found that cutting our elementary orchestra program ended up costing us more money in extra staff hired two to six years down the road than we saved by cutting elementary orchestra. The lesson in this is that you have to take a long-term view of budgeting, something that the Madison board does not do.
My beef with some on the school board is that they haven’t done the work necessary to come to some understanding of the long-term economic effects of cutting elementary strings. They seem to be using the threatened cut to extort “yes” votes on a referendum, rather than doing their jobs as budgeteers.
I agree whole heartedly with Mr. Pay’s comments – the MMSD School Board is not taking a long-term financial or educational look at elementary strings. There are two other reasons why this is a bad decision that come to mind – one is standards and the other is, in my mind, an even bigger economic impact than benefits from larger class sizes.
The long-term educational and financial fallout from cutting elementary strings will cost far more than the $500,000 cost of the program.
I’m from NYC and I’ve seen the deterioration first hand of a public school system. If the District lowers its quality of course offerings, families who can will choose to put their children in other school districts when they move to this area. These children often are lower overhead (require less extra services). Madison will be left with higher overhead children and have even less money for their education. this is by far a much bigger impact for our children and for our City, and my peeve is that because the School Board is not looking long-term, we are going down some very rocky roads that we do not have to at the present.
We have revenue cap issues, but that does not absolve our school board of looking and planning long term.
Course Cost-Effectiveness
The entire K-12 music education program costs approximately $200 per participant – including elementary strings, which costs about $250 per child. We spend $600 per child on administrative costs. We spend over $300 per child on extracurricular sports.
Only 9.6 FTEs teach nearly 2,000 elementary school children in 30 elementary schools how to play strings – that’s remarkable. In the Isthmus this week, the principal cellist with the Madison Symphony Orchestra commented that he is amazed at how much children are learning and impressed with the quality of their instruction from teachers who travel to several schools to teach.
Standards
The view on elementary strings is very short-sighted. This is a high value, high demand course that reaches ALL children, regardless of ability.
If the Board cuts elementary strings, they will not be meeting their standards for music education. They will be depriving more than 600-1000 low and moderate income children of the opportunity to have the well-documented personal and educational benefits from this course. Lowering of academic standards for any course, but especially one that is high demand and shown to have significant personal and academic benefits for children is unacceptable.
Macro-Financial Impact
Not only is elementary strings cost-effective, a high value to and for students, meets the district’s board approved standards, this course is much-valued in this community and makes the school district attractive to parents who are moving into the area. That parent decision, about where to enroll your child, is worth thousands of dollars to Madison. Every time a parent chooses to put their child in another district, the MMSD loses those dollars that could be put toward educating all our children.
The district has felt the impact of the growing suburban communities since the mid-1990s. Since that time thousands of children were enrolled in districts surrounding Madison, costing MMSD millions of dollars per year.
Cutting elementary strings and other highly valued, high demand courses will continue to erode the academic quality of the district and cost millions.
There will be fallout in many ways from such decisions, but the impact on our low income and minority student population will be worse. In the case of strings, not only will low income/minority children not have the personal and economic benefits, their quality of education will suffer.
Our School Board can make better decisions if they would look long-term before deciding – elementary strings is a case in point of the potential educational and financial costs of short-sighted decisionmaking.
I agree with Ms. Shrank’s comments. A major factor faced by schools these days is competition for excellence. In Rapid City, we didn’t face nearby districts with an orchestra program that would compete with us for those students/families that want a strings program. Instead, we were the district that attracted students for other nearby districts, because of the excellence of our music programs. In South Dakota transfers between districts, if the family petitions, are automatic, and state aid follows the child. So Rapid City would get more state aid money by keeping the program. I believe the issue is different here. The nearby district have excellent schools with strings programs. If Madison cuts their program, the district is likely to lose students over time to the nearby districts. And I think in Wisconsin, too, there is an enrollment factor for state aid.
Support is demonstrated by where and how resources are allocated –
Superintendent Art Rainwater’s budget pits academic programs against extracurricular sports – and he picked a winner: HS extracurricular sports. I didn’t realize that I was living in the small town, backwaters. In a community that values sports and fine arts – the superintendent and school board decide extracurricular sports are protected – we decide that, but the public must give an up or down on open classroom, social workers, psychologists, fine arts.
His balanced budget eliminates the open classroom, eliminates elementary strings for 1,866 children and lays off music education staff – 50% or more of the orchestra staff, lays of social workers that Mr. Lopez believes are the front line for low income/minority students.
Mr. Winston supports this budget and supports putting these courses and services at risk to the pass/fail of a referendum – but not services for kids for extracurricular sports.
Mr. Winston says elementary strings – write the check or give me your ideas otherwise, no referendum, no strings for 1,866 kids. He does not say that to the high school parents and students who play extracurricular sports. None of the services to kids are at risk if the referendum fails.
Why? He said to me that last year those parents paid a big increase in fees. Pardon me. Elementary strings stepped to the plate to pay a $50 fee – the first ever. Parents and community members with first-hand experience have spoken of the importance to children and to the the instrumental program of starting in 4th grade.
What will happen to sports if the referendum fails – no loss in services to children. that is why you have not seen coaches and their students at the budget hearings.
Athletic administration would move to MSCR and so does freshman sports. This did not make sense to the athletics task force. They need the athletic directors in the schools and freshman no-cut sports is nearly all covered by the fees children pay to participate. what would have made sense? To determine, in light of all services and academics for kids, what the district could afford to pay, if anything, for extracurricular sports and let the sports parents and community know this.
Do I want to cut extracurricular sports? Absolutely not. I lettered in three sports in high school; I know first hand the benefits of afterschool sports. I support paying for HS sports, but not at the expense of 100% cut to 1,866 children.
Sports had a task force. Fine arts supporters and staff asked for a task force. sports got one – fine arts did not.
Madison values excellent academics, fine arts, sports. We need to believe that our school board does as well. This budget and cuts demonstrate otherwise and show a punitive attitude toward elementary strings in particular.