EQUAL FUNDING FOR SC ARTS
BACKGROUND
During my public high school education in South Carolina, I gained invaluable skills through my visual arts classes which have continued to benefit me in both my collegiate and professional endeavors. However, the lack of funding which high school art departments face across the state is troublesome, and hinders many students' ability to engage in the same artistic educational opportunities in which I was fortunate enough to participate. The burden of securing funding falls unfairly on the art students and teachers themselves, an issue made even more concerning by the ease with which school districts in South Carolina fund multimillion-dollar sports facility upgrades for students who choose an athletic extracurricular. The goal of my campaign is to educate South Carolina taxpayers on the inequality of our public education system's spending and raise awareness about an issue that has continued to impact South Carolina students' ability to succeed.
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LETTER
In September of 2019, I emailed a letter to the superintendent of my school district, Tom Wilson, explaining how my high school art education impacted my ability to succeed after graduation and how there is a need to equalize the funding between extracurricular areas within our district. Mr. Wilson's response to my letter was to assure me that "Anderson School District Five fully supports all our arts programs and we are proud of the accomplishments of our students." The content of my letter is as follows:
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Hello Superintendent Wilson,
My name is Josie Hook and I am a 2016 graduate of TL Hanna High School currently in my senior year at Furman University. During my time at TL Hanna, I was fortunate enough to enroll in the school’s AP Studio Art program. Although I chose to major in English and Communication Studies at Furman, the benefits of entering my freshman year of college having both an expansive visual arts portfolio and a college visual arts credit from AP Studio Art have been invaluable in my four-year pathway at Furman. Thanks to my experience in AP Studio Art, I was able to qualify for a merit-based visual arts scholarship my freshman year at Furman, and I have been able to utilize the portfolio of work I created in the class as part of my résumé in order to obtain priceless work experience through numerous internships.
Unfortunately, what does have a price is enrollment in high school AP Studio Art. As I reflect on both my high school and college educations, I realize that the benefits I gained from AP Studio Art are a privilege that too many high school students in District 5 are unable to afford. While the visual art department at TL Hanna was able to provide me with some of the required materials for AP Studio Art during my time as a student, it was necessary for me to purchase many of the supplies on my own. The bill for a quality set of pencils, a case in which to transport my artwork, archival quality markers and pens, and countless other materials I needed to purchase myself in order to work outside of class to create the college quality portfolio I still have today quickly added up to well over $100. Had I not been fortunate enough to be able to afford this price, I may have missed out on many of the opportunities an AP Studio Art education has the potential to give to students.
I understand that since my graduation, the arts department at TL Hanna has been raising many of their funds on their own through the Wearable Art Exhibition, and that the school district was recently able to match $3,000 of the funds the department raised. While both the effort on the part of the art department to raise these funds and the decision on the part of the school district to match them are commendable, this funding ultimately would not have been possible without the hard work of high school art students themselves. In light of the fact that other areas of extracurricular interest, such as sports, have received funding for structural improvements from the recent Anderson County penny sales tax without the level of student involvement demonstrated by the art department, it seems to me that an unfair burden of self-funding remains on the students and teachers of TL Hanna’s art department.
This is why I am reaching out to you. I remember how concerns over adequate funding permeated the arts department at TL Hanna during my time as a student, and I am dismayed to see that these same concerns are still prevalent now over four years later. While the recent financial support from the district is encouraging, this is a temporary solution. Even though the long-term benefits of a quality high school arts education are just as much of an asset to students as the benefits gained from other extracurricular activities are, future funding for the TL Hanna art department is still set to burden students and teachers in a way simply not felt by other district-sponsored departments.
As a fellow former student of District 5, I was excited to read in your biography that you plan to continue our district’s tradition of excellence in academics, athletics, and the arts. I ask of you that in continuing this legacy of excellence, you give to the art department the same financial support afforded to academics and athletics. While the excellence of the art department is undeniably on par with athletics and academics, the inexplicable imbalance of funding has existed in District 5 for too long. As superintendent, you have the power to change this; I would implore you to do so for the sake of our district’s legacy and your own.
I understand that as District 5 superintendent, you have many responsibilities on your plate, especially given that we find ourselves in the back to school season. It would be great to hear that you’ve had a chance to read this in the coming week, and we could meet later this month. I wish you all the best in this upcoming school year, and I hope that you see the value a quality arts education can bring to high school students in District 5.
Respectfully,
Josie Hook
OP-ED
My next step in advocating for the issue of funding for arts programs was to write an op-ed specifically focusing on my experience as an arts-focused high school student in South Carolina. The op-ed, titled "Unequal Opportunity," is intended for a statewide publication and reads as follows:
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Unequal Opportunity
My life as a Furman student hasn’t exactly turned out like I thought it would in high school, but that’s the beauty of college. You change directions, make new friends, and of course, learn a few things. I came to Furman as an Art History major planning to go into museum curation, and four years later I am set to graduate next semester with Bachelors of Arts degrees in Communication Studies and in English.
But that first freshman year, I found out that I had a big leg up from knowing something many of my peers had yet to learn: work ethic. I owe this skill by and large not to the AP Chemistry or Calculus One courses I took in high school, but to AP Studio Art.
AP Studio Art taught me to plan and carry out multiple, often overlapping, projects to completion, manage my time on a demanding schedule, gain experience (and dare I say, mastery?) in fine art materials- all skills you might find on my résumé that I earned before even setting foot on a college campus. Even better, the course earned me an arts scholarship at Furman.
I say all of this to make the point that although STEM curriculum and sports involvement are pushed heavily for high school students in our state (and doubtlessly have benefitted countless students as a result), a quality high school arts education has the potential to be just as impactful in the long term for students. Unfortunately, in spite of how much of an advantage AP Studio Art gave me entering college, the experience did not come without a cost.
The financial burden placed on AP Studio Art students, and art students as a whole, is an obstacle that students who seek educational enrichment in other areas simply do not have to bear. In my home school district, Anderson District 5, students and teachers rally together to raise funding for the arts with the “Wearable Art Fashion Show,” and have been hugely successful in doing so. But when this accomplishment is contrasted with the multimillion dollar sports facility upgrades given to high school student athletes in my district without them having to lift a finger, the burden of fundraising art teachers and students must take on at their own expense seems unfair.
Even worse, this pattern of disparity in funding can be seen statewide. I was fortunate enough to be able to afford the cost of art materials and the time to dedicate to the arts department during my time as a high school student, but there are students in our state for whom this financial and time undertaking is too much. As taxpayers and as South Carolinians, we cannot allow this financial disparity to cheat high school students in our state.
I recently reached out to my district’s superintendent, Tom Wilson, about the issue. He assured me that “Anderson School District Five fully supports all our arts programs,” but speaking from personal experience and teacher input I know that Wilson must just mean support in spirit, not in reality. The high school arts teachers I have spoken with agree that even just $25 more per student (approximately $2,200 a semester and a fraction of the cost of the taxpayer-funded new sports facilities my alma mater touts) would be more than sufficient. Too long the arts have been overlooked and underfunded. I am asking us as South Carolinians to re-evaluate our priorities, and give our high school students the opportunities for success they deserve. To find out more about this issue and stay connected, I would encourage you to browse the South Carolina Arts Commission webpage and follow them on social media. Join the conversation, and the next time you are at a school district meeting, local government meeting, or voting, you might remember the arts and raise your voice in support.
If we all speak for change, we give other local kids like me a fighting chance at pursuing their dreams.
Josie Hook is a senior Communication Studies and English double major at Furman University. She is proud to call TL Hanna High School in Anderson her alma mater.
Word Count: 694
MEMES
The next action I took in this process was to create memes for circulation on Facebook to raise awareness and spark conversation in a humorous yet meaningful way. I used the PicsArt app on my phone to modify two familiar templates, and crafted the memes to foster a sense of unity among my peers in the shared experience of an unevenly funded high school experience.
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INFOGRAPHICS
I created two infographics to advocate for high school arts funding. The infographic on the left has a simplistic design and is created to be shared on Instagram, focusing on the specific impacts underfunding visual arts programs has on high school students. This infographic previously had a much more complex color scheme, but after receiving feedback criticizing the negative effects this had on readability, I streamlined the design to have one blue color scheme.
The infographic on the left has much more detailed information, and is intended to be shared on Facebook. This infographic focuses on how South Carolina visual arts education measures up to national standards, and includes Gallup poll results linking an arts education to higher hope and engagement among high school students.
VIDEO
For my video, I chose to showcase the testimonials of other former South Carolina public high school students. They explain the positive impact their own art educations have had on their lives post-graduation, and how underfunding posed a threat to their own success and the success of their respective art departments.
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CONCLUSION
Throughout this project, I aimed to convince the taxpayers of South Carolina that their education system has been neglecting to use their money to fund their arts programs, and this has a tangible negative impact on students. If I were to revise this project, I would include more input from the teachers and professionals close to this issue. I would also consider attending school district meetings in person to further my agenda. Unfortunately, the issue of underfunding the arts continues to cheat students out of achieving their full artistic potential, but change can be brought about with enough people taking action.