Art Students Forced to Adapt to Budget Cuts to Make the Cut Karen Kesteloot [Pick the date]
Budget cuts to arts education force online art classes to replace missing skills to publicly educated students so they can compete for arts college admission. Funds are focused on the core subjects resulting in students being unable to make adequate art portfolios. (Newswire.net --July 9, 2013) Guelph, ON -- Budget cuts to arts education force online art classes to Cropping a drawing for a college art portfolio replace missing skills to publicly educated students so they can compete for arts college admission. Funds are focused on the core subjects resulting in students being unable to make adequate art portfolios. Budget cuts to arts education force online art classes to replace missing skills to publicly educated students so they can compete for arts college admission. Funds are focused on the core subjects resulting in students being unable to make adequate art portfolios. Early this year, US nationwide budget cuts in the arts have adversely affected public schools. The Washington Examiner reports that the DC Public School cut $300,000US from their arts program. The principal has already turned five full-time art teachers into part-timers, against parent wishes, forcing the better teachers to leave. Eugene Weekly also reports that Churchill High School of Eugene Oregon has limited the sequential art courses switching them to electives. “Arts always, always fall afterwards,” said Churchill art teacher Lance Eagen. “It’s always scheduled after ‘the real classes’ are scheduled.” According to the University of Michigan report, Education Budgets for Art Education schools are forced to focus the limited funds they have on the subjects that are tested in nation-wide assessments in order to gain federal funding and have little choice but to reduce spending on arts education. The result is that students miss out on building the fundamental skills critical in everyday life. “Arts learning experiences contribute to the development of certain thinking, social and motivational skills that are considered basic for success in school, work and life,” says Sandra S. Ruppert in her book Critical Evidence: How the ARTS Benefit Student Achievement. “These fundamental skills encompass a wide range of more subtle, general capacities of the mind, self-perceptions and social relationships.” More importantly, aspiring artists miss out on the opportunity to develop their skills and a shot at a career in art or design. Only those families of adequate wealth can afford the necessary private schooling that it takes to get into the best universities with higher job
placement rates upon graduation. It begs the question; how many talented artists and designers are the United States leaving out of the workforce and depriving the nation of potential innovators? Due to the unavailability of art programs in high schools students look towards websites like PortPrep.com to serve as a solution. They train students how to build an art portfolio, giving publicly educated students a chance to compete for placements in the better schools. PortPrep founder Karen Kesteloot said in a video, “We help you learn how to plan which images to include in your portfolio…We teach you what colleges are looking for, how to present your work in the best way to show your strengths…Getting into the better schools is going to give you the better education that you need to have an excellent start in your career." Author: Christopher Jan Benitez Senior Writer for PortPrep PortPrep Studios Karen Kesteloot, founder of Portprep.com 275 Woolwich St, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1H 3V8 info@portprep.com (519) 803-2539 Sources: http://www.eugeneweekly.com/20130411/shortchanging-our-schools/budget-cuts-affectmusic-arts http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356.burba/education_budgets_for_art_education http://www.nasaa-arts.org/Research/Key-Topics/Arts-Education/critical-evidence.pdf Click here to view page where news release was first published.