Monday, June 26, 2006

Arts Education In NYC Public Schools 

Robin Pogrebin has a story in today's New York Times about efforts to bring an integrated arts curriculum back to NYC public schools. But these facts are staggering:

According to data provided by the department to the City Council this fall, there is 1 visual arts teacher for every 943 students and 1 music teacher for every 1,200. For dance and theater the numbers are even more extreme, with 1 dance teacher for every 8,088 students, and 1 theater teacher for every 8,871. Although about 40,000 teachers have been added to the New York City school system since 1975 — bringing the current total to about 84,000 — no more than 2,000 of them are arts specialists, according to the Center for Arts Education, a nonprofit group.
What a difference compared to The William E. Doar Jr. Public Charter School for the Performing Arts in which there is a dance, theatre, music, and visual arts teacher for 232 students.

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