Many Oregon students will have less music, arts and PE as schools begin a new year
Published: Monday, September 06, 2010, 8:00 PM
View full sizeBarbara Delegato, a music teacher at Dilly Elementary School in the Forest Grove School District, pulls drums from storage to get ready for the new year. This year will include more travel for Delegato as she will go from teaching in two schools to three.Many kids look forward to going to choir class at the end of the day or performing in uniform with the school band for the first time.
They clamor to get to the paints and colored pencils in art class, to create a castle, an airplane or a cartoon.
But when schools reopen this week, most Oregon students will have fewer opportunities to take advantage of these courses -- classes that many say are necessary for a well-rounded education.
From Burns to Dallas to Portland, school districts say vanishing state revenue, rising costs and increased pressure to meet standardized testing benchmarks in subjects like reading and math are threatening to squeeze out courses in the arts, music, physical education and career education.
As the Dallas School District looked for ways to close a $1.3 million gap, the 3,200-student district and its school board made what they called one of their most controversial decisions – eliminating elementary school music.
"We know that education is about more than reading, writing and math, but you have to make