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AZ House panel OKs PE and arts school bill

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The state Legislature should not enact a law that would protect arts, music and physical education classes in our public schools.

Let us be clear: We favor these enriching elective classes. In fact, we would like to see every student offered art, music and PE classes. However, that is not possible at this time and the measure would not make those classes available to all.

On Wednesday, the House Committee on K-12 Education approved a bill that would forbid schools that offer such programs from cutting them. This bill should not become law because such cuts should be local decisions.

The districts' locally elected governing boards are in the best position to decide how to allocate limited resources. The Legislature should get out of their way.

The House committee is concerned that new high school math and science requirements voted by the state Board of Education may prompt local schools to dump arts or PE offerings, according to a story in Thursday's Star by Capital Media Services.

Students who enter high school in the fall of 2009 will be required to take four years instead of two years of math classes, and a third year of science.

Tom Horne, the state school superintendent, supports the arts bill, according to the Capital Media Services story, because he argues that it's OK for the state to set minimum standards. But the bill, HB 2557, doesn't do that — it only forbids schools that offer these electives from dropping them.

Few, if any, educators would cut these enriching courses without searching diligently for other solutions to balance budgets. But when resources are limited, as they inevitably are, such cuts, regrettably, may be the only option.

The bill offers an out for strapped schools: If they can show the Arizona Department of Education that they cannot afford the classes or that enrollment doesn't support the electives, class offerings can be halted.

This measure is merely feel-good legislating. It sends a faux message that the Legislature is committed to quality public education. The bill says lawmakers favor arts and PE classes — if the schools have cobbled together the resources to offer them, either through tax credit revenues or parent donations or fundraisers or all of the above.

The bill also hamstrings local decision-makers while doing absolutely nothing for the many students whose schools can't offer the opportunity to learn about music, art or dance.

Janice Palmer, director of governmental relations for the Arizona School Boards Association, opposed the bill.

"I told the committee it is extremely troubling to have this type of legislation as we're adding math and science requirements, as educators are wrestling with adding English Language Learner programs and as the science AIMS test in biology required by No Child Left Behind is coming on line," Palmer said in an interview on Thursday. "This is not the time to tie the hands of the local school boards."

We believe lawmakers should show a genuine commitment to improving education by finding ways to help schools that cannot afford to offer these valuable electives. Lacking that, they should at least back off and let the local leaders manage their resources.