What gives with this guy wanting to kill the arts in OK?

[n2sooners]

IF we FULLY privatize education then only the wealthy will remain in power, and no one will be able to afford DECENT education. I say DECENT because that is what Public Education has been reduced to, We are nowhere near the top http://www.nationalmathandscience.org/solutions/challenges/staying-competitive, we are actually in a TERRIBLE position for the future. Countries like Sweden where kids are being taught computer science and programming from the age of 5! are going to be the future of science and tech. Those are not privatized schools they are Government funded.

America's problem to BEGIN with is that education was made a FOR PROFIT corporation all while being endowed with tax write-offs and MASSIVE sums in the form of Government subsidies, which they in turn Invested into Hedge Funds and Stocks or Bonds, a LOT of schools invested in the sub-prime mess as well. Once we allowed schools to invest and speculate with public funds as though it were a private entity we were screwed.

Getting rid of the ARTS will only further our decline as an educated nation, I for one learned more about mathematics and science, and UNDERSTOOD quite a bit more about the world in general once I learned Music Theory at the age of 8, was taught Piano and Violin for years, then on to Guitar. Still play today 19 years later. How many people still create or use imagination in ANYTHING for that amount of time? I would guess a small percentage, lots of people noodle and pick up an instrument now and again, but how many of them play hours and hours per day? Get rid of the arts and musical education and you lose alot of the ability to produce a free thinking society, look at Communist China, they do NOT ALLOW freedom of expression with arts like in America, that is where we head without Musical Education and The Arts.

Privatizing education doesn't mean no one could afford it. We could switch to a voucher system and then private schools would compete for the money. It would be run much more efficiently since they would have to do as good a job as possible as inexpensively as possible.

As for art, the government spending itself into bankruptcy because it is paying for things it shouldn't be paying for at all doesn't make us a more enlightened society, it makes us stupid. Just because the government doesn't pay for something doesn't mean it will cease to exist, and if it does then it probably wasn't worth keeping anyway. People who want to subsidize art should do so, they shouldn't use the government to steal and borrow away their children's future to make it happen.

 

[david wilson]

Let it stand or fall on its own without government subsidies.

 

[71buickfreak]

Yeah, so by your accounts, there should be no grants and low interest loans for small businesses either. Many of those small businesses turned out to be major corporations that have repaid their loans 1,000 fold by creating jobs and growing the economy.

I'm not employed or connected to the OAC in any way. I just don't like it when the first thing people talk about cutting is funding for arts or education instead of pet projects. In Stillwater, a couple of years ago they stripped the gravel off of a 5 mile section of Fairgrounds road and paved it. There are many sections of road that need paved, such as a 5 mile section of 19th street that serves hundreds of people. That section of fairgrounds? Has 5 houses on it, one if which is a big campaign contributor. I don't like BS, and killing the funding for non-profit art and history over tax breaks for oil is BS. Big oil can afford to do without, a small non-profit can't.

The bill is DOA as of today anyway, so moot point.

 

[Parks 788]

My problem is that they cut art funding but they won't pay for their own plane tickets, meals or transportation. They won't cut other BS funding, but they cut funding that goes directly towards arts education. That 29 million in art revenue has nothing to do with the fund, the fund is mainly for art education. I want art back in school as a daily class. I want gym back as a daily class. One of the main functions of the government is education, fund it the way it should be. Schools have to have several fundraisers each year just to keep the lights on. That is BS. Instead of paying for illegal immigrants and health care, fund the god damn school system the way it should be.

I agree that the govt should educate our children, to some degree. Should they spend the money for kids to take art classes? Absolutely not!! They should be teaching math, science, reading, writing and economics. I don't see why art is so important for kids to take in school. Their parents can give them culture or their parents can sign them up of art class on their dime. Until our nation is in the top tier of the worlds education systems then stick to the basics.

As far as taxes going to illegals and health care? I agree again. Bit the school would sure have a lot more money if the teachers and administrators were put on the same benefits programs as private sector workers. Did you know in most districts 80% of all school funding goes to salary and benefits of administrators and teachers. That's 20% for educating our children. How badly do you want arts programs?

 

[Cinaet]

Some of you people need to watch Mr. Holland's Opus.

"A teacher has two jobs; fill young minds with knowledge, yes, but more important, give those minds a compass so that that knowledge doesn't go to waste."

Art isn't just art classes. It's music. It's poetry. It's literature. Art is alot more than painting. It's motivation for the soul. Art is what makes life interesting.

 

[dennishoddy]

My problem is that they cut art funding but they won't pay for their own plane tickets, meals or transportation. They won't cut other BS funding, but they cut funding that goes directly towards arts education. That 29 million in art revenue has nothing to do with the fund, the fund is mainly for art education. I want art back in school as a daily class. I want gym back as a daily class. One of the main functions of the government is education, fund it the way it should be. Schools have to have several fundraisers each year just to keep the lights on. That is BS. Instead of paying for illegal immigrants and health care, fund the god damn school system the way it should be.

Screw the finger painting in schools. Focus on Reading, Writing and Math. Those skills will bring in a whole lot more money than finger painting and pottery making.

 

[71buickfreak]

Part of the basics is the arts. Why so many people not understand that? Without art, you have no substance. Many cannot live on algebra alone. With out art, math is meaningless. What is wrong with you? Math made hi-points. Art created the XD, the 1911 and the Python. When you see art, you see a waste of money, when I see art, I see everything.

 

[SMS]

As usual, this has become too polarized. Being FOR the elimination of funding for the OAC does not in any way equal being anti art education in public schools.

It's as bad as the libs saying if you are against the assault weapons ban then you want kids to be gunned down in school.

Someone please show me that the OAC directly impacts, in a cost effective manner, the art education that my kids get in public school...if you can do that, I might be swayed.

 

[71buickfreak]

What makes me laugh is that every single one of you bastards had art class every day in school. I guess your children and grandchildren don't deserve the same, right?

 

[dennishoddy]

Part of the basics is the arts. Why so many people not understand that? Without art, you have no substance. Many cannot live on algebra alone. With out art, math is meaningless. What is wrong with you? Math made hi-points. Art created the XD, the 1911 and the Python. When you see art, you see a waste of money, when I see art, I see everything.

Art didn't create the XD, etc. Engineers that understood physics, math, and metalurgy built those guns.