When the School District of Philadelphia adopted what was known as its “doomsday” budget for the 2013-2014 school year, there was barely enough money to maintain general education requirements mandated by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Schools across the city were left understaffed. The district’s Arts Department took a substantial hit, and schools were lucky if they were left with one art or music teacher.

“When we had the cuts, the schools just looked like they were bare-bones,” said Jennifer Bieter, the district’s budget director. “You had a principal, you had your teachers, you had a secretary, and if you were lucky, you had a counselor.”

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, all students in grades K-12 must be provided with a form of instruction in all four arts disciplines: dance, music, theater, and the visual arts.

It is the responsibility of the local districts to create written curricula in those areas, but it’s easy to skirt by and meet the state requirements in low-budget ways, especially in elementary schools. This means a first grade class with only one teacher can sing songs and draw pictures with students and be able to give them an art grade, allowing the principal to easily cut certified art and music teachers.  

Fast forward seven years to the current academic year. Though arts budgets have not recovered to their pre-”doomsday levels,” every elementary and middle school in the city now has some amount of arts resources and schools with 300 students or less are given an extra $50,000 to help support the needs of their students, including arts related funding.