Toronto District School Board budget committee proposes drastic cuts to primary music education

At its April 8 meeting, the Toronto District School Board budget committee proposed severe cuts to the music department’s budget. If the information I have seen is correct, and if the budget proposals are passed, it would mean no music for some children before Grade 5 in Toronto’s non-denominational public schools starting with the next school year.

Since the 1960s, the board’s schools have been visited by Itinerant Music Instructors who provide leadership in percussion, recorder, choral, band, string and steel pan ensemble work as well as instructional help for the resident music teacher, if there is one.

The budget proposals include a 24 per cent cut in hours available for band and 29 per cent for string ensembles — and would cut all funding for itinerant vocal, recorder and Orff (percussion) instruction.

There is a petition set up here. I have signed it, as an Education Tax ratepayer as well as a concerned bystander, in the hopes that a mass show of support for music in schools may help change Toronto District School Board Trustees’ minds.

John Terauds