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Throughout my time in the Oklahoma public school system, I spent much of my time in a suit at speech and debate tournaments or playing the trumpet in a marching band uniform at the halftimes of football games. Although I am now a college student, I will always carry with me the knowledge that came along with these activities.
I remember being an awkward freshman who didn’t know how to make friends before the band taught me how to work in a group. I remember not knowing how to express myself before speech and debate mademe fall in love with public speaking. I also remember having to take tiny, yellow buses to competitions more than three hours away because the football team needed the good buses to go to their game 15 minutes away. I remember my speech team not being able to afford T-shirts after winning the state championship, while the baseball team got full outfits of merch after going 0-30 for the season.
The Oklahoma public school system severely underfunds its fine arts programs, and these programs continue to shrink as athletics programs continue to gain more funding. Between 2014 and 2018, Oklahoma public schools cut 1,110 fine arts classes, and, as of 2019, about 30% of students report having absolutely no fine arts classes to enroll in.
While the fine arts programs in Oklahoma public schools are, essentially, rapidly dying, high schoolathletic programs are being raised to the ranks of D1 collegiate athletics. Reportedly, the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association has cleared the way for high school athletes to make money off of their image, likeness and name — just like collegiate athletes.
By getting monetized because of their sport, these athletes get a world of opportunities opened up to them. These athletes are able to get thousands of dollars in scholarships, as well as entry into elite schools — all because their talent gets funded. Students who excel in the fine arts do not get the same opportunities as athletes, and cannot be expected to meet their full potential without their education institution backing up their talent. Fine arts programs allow students to express themselves and speak for others who cannot speak for themselves through their methods of art.
Access to programs such as band, speech and debate, art and theater should not be limited to private and wealthy schools. Public schools must equally distribute their money between activities in order to set up students of all backgrounds and areas of interest for success.
Just as much as athletics programs need funding for the betterment of the students’ progress and love for the activity, the arts need funding in order to keep the passion for creativity alive. The Oklahoma public school system must increase funding of fine arts budgets and classes to meet the caliber of money and classes being offered to athletics programs.
As someone who truly found my passions and place among those like me in my creative outlets, I know firsthand just how dire it is to set the fire underneath higher-ups in educational decision making to funneladequate money into these programs. Students’ futures may rely on the support they receive from their education system.
Jaci Walker is a first-year English student at Columbia University in New York City, but she was born and raised in Oklahoma.
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