Austin’s KXAN news reports that “this week, fine arts students from across the state swarmed the Texas State Capitol to tell lawmakers their curriculum is not extracurricular.” The fear is that the arts will be singled out as nonessential when the budget axe falls on public education. The legislature needs to cut more than $1 billion in discretionary education grants and nearly $10 billion in basic education. TX Senate Education Chair Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, and House Public Education Chair Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, support fine arts education, even if Eissler has a bad pun habit: Eissler is quoted in the San Antonio Express-News website as saying “If the Legislature was not serious about the fine arts, we would have called it the mediocre arts”, and “If we did away with theater, it would be curtains for all of us.”
Art is not extracurricular!
