The Day the Music Died

[May 22nd, 2002] The Portland Public Schools administration has failed to fulfill a key promise made two years ago when the district asked voters to approve $78 million in local property taxes.

The so-called "local option" money was earmarked for buying new textbooks and reducing class size. But backers of Measure 26-02 also promised that the money would bring back arts and music programs that had been cut. According to the description of the measure, which appeared on the May 2000 ballot, the cash would buy new textbooks, reduce class size and "help restore art, music and other lost basic programs."

Newly released staffing data analyzed by WW shows that voters haven't gotten what they thought they were voting--and paying--for. In fact, rather than restoring arts and music programs, next year's budget calls for cuts that outstrip those made in other programs.

The decision to tie M26-02 to arts and music programs was highly calculated. Mark Wiener, a political strategist hired by school supporters to run the local-option campaign, says polling confirmed that, in addition to buying new textbooks and reducing class size, voters were willing to pay for stronger arts programs. "Art and music bubble right up to the top of people's priorities," says Wiener.

Two-thirds of voters who marked their ballots in May 2000 approved the measure.

Despite earlier reports, however, the district never followed through--at least in arts and music funding. In 2000-2001, the first year that local-option money was available, the district's data show that the net increase in teachers of dance, music, theater and visual arts was less than 1.2 full-time positions for the district's 54,000 students. For the current school year, the district added .66 of a full-time position.

Thus, while spending about $29 million in local-option dollars over the past two years (the full $78 million is to be levied and spent over five years) and hiring 172 teachers, district officials managed to add less than two full-time arts teachers.

The outlook for next year is even worse. A total of 25 arts positions--about one-fifth of such positions in the district--will be eliminated. And although there will be layoffs across the board, arts positions are being eliminated disproportionately.

After next year's cuts, district schools will employ nearly 20 percent fewer arts and music teachers than in 1999-2000, the year before voters approved the local option. Currently, 10 of the district's 63 elementary schools have no music program. Next year, that number will jump to 28. Three middle schools and one high school, Marshall, will also lose their music programs next year.

Carol Egan, a district visual-arts administrator, blames former Superintendent Ben Canada for failing to ensure that local-option money was spent as voters were told it would be. "He just gave the money to principals and let them spend it how they chose," Egan says.

Although it's difficult to track precisely what the 172 teachers hired with local-option money specialize in, Egan says many principals chose to focus resources on reading and math, which, unlike music and the arts, are tested by the state.

While it's understandable that principals want to boost test scores, Egan notes that recent studies have shown that music and arts can help. "In the past 20 years, there's been a mountain of research that shows that the arts play an important role in academic achievement," she says.

Interim Superintendent Jim Scherzinger, who says he has not seen the newly released staffing numbers, argues that the district did not deliberately mislead voters. Rather, he says, state funding has plummeted, leading to crisis conditions. "You cannot gut the base funding of the system and deliver on all the promises that were made," Scherzinger says.

Scherzinger adds that while he is disappointed that the district has not beefed up arts instruction, he believes its actions are within the law. "It may not be what people expected," he says, "but I think we're legally within what the ballot says."

Voters aren't the only ones who may be disappointed in the state of the arts in the district.

On May 24, officials from the Oregon Department of Education will audit the district for compliance with state standards. One of those standards covers what students must know about art and music.

Given that barely half of the district's schools offer music, however, the expectation that students will be able to meet even minimal requirements seems absurd to Glenn Ludtke, the district's music administrator. "I find it difficult to understand how we're going to meet benchmarks without teachers," Ludtke says.