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Thursday, April 1, 2021

Opinion: Career and technical education should not be at the expense of the arts in Texas schools - Houston Chronicle

Steve Jobs took one class in calligraphy on a whim. Later when he remembered what he learned when he designed the Macintosh computer, Jobs said, “It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.”

Jobs’ story offers a real-life example of how an arts class changed the course of a career and affected millions of lives. For decades, Texas has acknowledged the power of the arts by requiring one fine arts credit in high school.

One credit can only scratch the surface of centuries of visual and performing arts. But even that seems too much for the sponsor of a bill currently in front of the Texas Senate.

SB 473 seeks to remove the requirement for one high school Fine Arts credit and allows students to choose either one fine arts or one career and technical education (CTE) credit to meet high school graduation requirements. Legislators should vote “no” on this bill and remain committed to a well-rounded education for all Texans.

I wholeheartedly support and value CTE. After all, if I hadn’t taken typing in high school, decades before widespread use of computers, I might be pecking out this op-ed on my computer today rather than typing fluidly, as I am doing now. But this bill’s false choice between the arts and technical education will mess with Texas students.

Americans take much pride in our culture and schooling as fostering innovation. Think about this: Fine arts classes are the one place in a child’s education where innovation and creativity are essential to the curriculum. And this is the curriculum requirement that this bill asks the Texas Legislature to eliminate.

Five years ago, Gov. Greg Abbott endorsed the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s 60x30 plan. The 60x30 plan aims to ensure 60 percent of Texas’ 25- to 34-year-old workforce achieves a postsecondary education credential by 2030.

Multiple studies show that the arts enhance academic achievement, attendance and graduation rates. The Legislature should encourage participation in the arts, if it is serious about meeting the 60x30 plan’s ambitious goals.

Teachers who have no training in the arts can teach elementary art, music and theater. Similarly, middle schools need not provide a full year arts class. That leaves high school as the only time in a young Texan’s education when she can count on appropriate exposure to the arts.

The bill’s defenders say that students have the option to enroll in art. But state funding gives districts more money for each student enrolled in CTE, and it’s easy to predict the unintended consequences of this bill. Counselors will steer students away from art classes in favor of a technical credit.

Access to arts education in Texas is already inequitable, especially among Title I school districts and neglected low-income and minority communities. Removing the Fine Arts requirement will unintentionally further the disparity among students in these communities.

Before he died too young in 2011, Jobs famously said in a college commencement address that he wouldn’t have been able to connect the dots in his life going forward. That he was only able to understand his life looking back.

But in the case of SB 473, Texans can connect the dots looking forward. The passage of this short-sighted bill would lower the bar for Texas education and the horizon of generations of students.

White is a board member of Texas Cultural Trust, a non-profit that supports the arts in Texas, a former Houston Chronicle editorial board member, a writer and the former First Lady of Houston.

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April 01, 2021 at 03:09PM
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Opinion: Career and technical education should not be at the expense of the arts in Texas schools - Houston Chronicle
"Opinion" - Google News
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