Mom? Can I borrow 50,000 dollars for our band program?

Should we rely on parents to raise money for the BOJC (Band, Orchestra, Jazz, Chorus) program?

In a perfect world, the answer to this question is no, but in the real world the answer to the question, in my opinion, is yes/ kinda.

The reality of the situation all circles back to the world of the arts and how people view it. Pretty much every one you talk to these days likes some form of art. Whether it be music, TV, drawing, painting,music, video games, ETC. The fact of the matter is pretty much all forms of entertainment are based off some form of "art."

Unfortunately, people often forget the fact of how much they love all that is mentioned above when it comes to schools art programs. Most people have no idea that a large majority of the creativity that they love stems all the way back to a schools art program.

Due to this sad fact, when it comes time for cutting the budget guess who's first to get the ax? If you guessed the athletic programs you guessed wrong. Most of the time its the art programs.

So to answer the question above,

It is absolutely a necessity to have the schools community involved in raising money for schools BOJC programs. That includes parents and students. Should it have to rely solely on them? No it shouldn't. But again we don't live in a perfect world.

When it comes to BOJC and almost anything else, buying quality products doesn't come cheap. So first things first.

The director of the program has to make a quote for the school. Once that happens and an amount is approved, the director has to rely on all their resources to raise enough money to reach there budget goal ( if the school doesn't give him/her the full amount.)

Thats when we need to rely on not just the parents but the students and the community to spread the word, make the necessary events and put on great shows to help bring in support.

So to answer the question above, yes we should rely on the parents as well as the community.


For anyone who stumbles on to this that believes art programs aren't a budget necessity. Imagine living in a world with no cars, movies, pictures (of all kinds), television, computers, music, furniture, houses, clothing, ETC..... Yea... All that mentioned above, some artist designed it/ designed its concept/developed it/ worked on it/ created it. Think long and hard about each one of those criterias before you say I'm incorrect.