STRINGS AND SPENDING

STRINGS AND SPENDING
In addressing my concern about the importance of arts education in the schools, I spoke with an important legislator in our state who is very prudent with the expenditure of public resources. He said, “we simply can’t afford the have the programs”. I replied “we simply can’t afford NOT to have the programs”! He asked me what I meant by that. I responded with asking him how much it costs to keep a man in prison in the state of Utah. He confessed that he did not know. I explained, from having visited one of our penal institutions and met with the assistant warden, that it costs the taxpayers of Utah $60,000.00 a year to keep a man in prison. There are over 5,000 men in prison in Utah. That is a total of $300 million dollars. I asked what he believed it costs to assist the families left on the outside while the prisoner is in prison He admitted that he assumed it was probably about the same figure. I then asked what the tally in relation to the damage done to society in getting a man into prison, (property damage, legal fees, court costs). He said that figure would probably be the same as well. In other words, the figure approaches $1 billion dollars annually. How many violins would that buy. If we could keep one man out of prison we would save the public $180,000.00 a year and perhaps save a human soul. I also asked the legislator how many things in the school building that were purchased by public funds last year are worth today what they paid for them. He confessed that probably everything had devalued. The computers placed in the labs at school are worth half their value within a short period of time. But, the musical instruments increase in value every year. A piano can last 100 years in a school and be valued far greater then, than it was when purchased. The technology is not going to improve. It is already perfect. I love Steinway and Sons new ad campaign. It has a picture of a beautiful Lexus with a question underneath it? Can you leave your Lexus to your grandchildren...STEINWAY.