Public Schools Should not Fund School Bands.

Extracurricular activities are hobbies. An activity or interest pursued outside one's regular occupation and engaged in primarily for pleasure. [1] Some schools have debate clubs, robotics clubs, political clubs, track, basketball, etc. These are all hobbies. All of the other extracurricular activities/hobbies should also have their funding cut on the same basis in order to provide for the improvement of solid academic courses. The Federal Government also funds nearly 10% of the budget of public schooling.[2] The schools use that money to fund extracurricular activities such as band. Artcile 1 Section 8 of the U.S. constitution states what the Federal Government has the right to fund. [3] As long as the U.S. government funds public schools in such a large amount the public school certainly doesn't have the right to fund school bands. It is in blatant violation of the U.S. constitution. If the Federal government cut the funding it gave to schools, which amounts to nearly 10%, I can gurantee you that band will be one of the first to go. Band has no buisness being funded. My opponent states that schools don't even put forth all the funding for a band. My response is that then there shouldn't be a large negative consequence to the school bands. If bands end up being entirely self-sufficient then good for them. But so far they need federal funding which the U.S. constitution does not allow for. If music helps students brain develop there is nothing stopping them from playing or listening to music. They can listen to music in their free time. There are many ridiculous scholarships out there. There are scholarships for just about every talent, ability, etc ever concieved, and organizations are willing to provide tens of thousands of dollars for them.[4] Promoting Veganism = $10,000 Making a prom dress out of duct tape = $6,000 Using a skateboard = $5,000 I don't think the federal government should be using tax dollars to fund skateboard lessons simply because there are scholarships out there for it. The pay for a musician is good, but it is very hard to become one more than it is to become an engineer if you take the proper courses. That is why most of the top schools in the country support engineering which require mathematics and science. [5] These schools include; Massachusets Institute of Technology Stanford Universtiy University of California-Berkeley Harvard University Princeton University And while there are good schools that offer music, they usually specialize in other career paths. Rochester for instance is ranked as having the best music school, however, Rochester is known for its psychology, engineering, economic, and biology programs. [6] In conclusion 1. As long as the federal goverment gives a substantial amount of funding to public schools, public schools have no constitutional right to fund school bands. 2. There are many valuable scholarships offered for a variety of useless talents, it doesn't mean the federal government should fund classes for those "talents" as well 3. It is much more promising to go forth with a career in science or mathematics, and with those classes being cut, band should be cut instead to fund those solid academic courses. Seeing that more schools and scholarships appeal to students who have strong backgrounds in mathematics and science, those courses should come first rather than band. [1] http://www.thefreedictionary.com... (Definition of the word "hobby") [2] http://www2.ed.gov... (The Federal Government funds over 8% of public school spending, see fact 4) [3] http://www.usconstitution.net... (Article 1 Section 8 of the United States Constitution) [4] http://www.collegedegree.com... (Various scholarships for various talents) [5] http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com... (List of top engineering schools) [6] http://en.wikipedia.org... (shows what the top musical school actually specializes in)