BUDGET PRIORITIES Cuts pose a heavy arts toll for Providence schools BY MITCH GINSBURG

Cathleen Markovitz, a music teacher at the Windmill Street Elementary School in Providence, received notice in February that she was losing her job. More than 10 percent of the city’s 2165 teachers received pink slips – issued in anticipation of a worst-case budget scenario. The possible cuts, including the loss of 17 music instructors and 21 art teachers, would reduce the number of such educators in the Providence schools by more than half over the last two academic years. With 85 percent of school funding tied up in salaries, benefits, and maintaining aging buildings, School Superintendent Melody Johnson says she had few other choices. "My options were arts, music, and social workers," she says. "That was my only wiggle room."

The outlook became even worse when Governor Donald L. Carcieri unveiled his proposed 2005 budget. The governor, a former teacher, outlined his desire to cut state aid to local schools while citing a gap between academic performance and compensation for teachers. To other observers, though, the reduction marked a slap in the face to public education.

During a February meeting, Johnson told a room full of elementary school music teachers and students, who testified before the school board in speech and song, "No one here wants to take anything away from you." She added, however, that Rhode Island, ranked 44th in state support for schools, offered Providence "inadequate and inequitable" funding. Suburban and rural communities have received thousands of dollars more per-student, she said. For the outlook to change, legislators need to "hear us more than once," Johnson told supporters. "They need to hear us until they listen."

Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal defends the proposed cuts. "Last year’s budget was artificially inflated by a $102 million federal education bonus," he says, "so it would be a mistake to compare this year’s budget with last year’s." This year, Neal says, there’s actually a $7.1 million increase from 2003 "in out of pocket funding." Moreover, he says, Providence has received a $41.8 million increase in state education funding over the past five years. Asked whether the state’s funding of public education is adequate, Neal responds, "The question is not who pays. That’s a red herring. The question is, what results are we getting?"

Music teachers predict that diminished arts programs will result in lower student performance. One retired Providence music teacher, speaking to the school board, said that after last year’s cuts, which eliminated band and orchestras from the school budget, absenteeism rose and students’ marks in math and English plummeted.

Steve Smith, the president of the Providence Teachers Union, says additional cuts will be devastating. "I can’t imagine another district without instrumental music," he says. "If we do open our doors next year, we won’t be offering quality — we’ll be a holding tank for kids. What’s happening here is educational malpractice." A student from Nathanael Greene Middle School boiled the budget battle down to a personal level for the board. "If my parents were rich and made a lot of money," he said, "I’d go to private school and be safe from cuts."