A number on a check is preventing art from changing lives. Millions of teenagers are no longer empowered by the force of art and are instead limited by the confines of the curriculum.

Public school budgets are being cut while enrollment increases. Denver has hired 47 art teachers in the past three years, but the 398 educators is still considered inadequate for the 82,000 DPS students.

The arts industry generates $22.3 billion in tax revenue for city, state, and federal government and yet public school art departments are only allotted $4 billion to spend.

Schools have to rely on outside funding to empower students through art. Organizations like Big Thought and The Wallace Foundation are helping, but they’re not solving the problem. It’s reached the point where parent volunteers are teaching because schools simply can’t afford to pay for educators.

Art isn’t simply enrichment- it is fundamental to education.

A study by the National Endowment for the Arts showed students who take art classes are four times more likely to be recognized for their academic achievements.

The inclusion of art in the curriculum has also reduced the gap between high and low income students’ academic performance and helps high-risk dropout students stay in school.

Art programs are mandatory in three of the highest ranked countries for math and science (Japan, Hungary, and the Netherlands) while the United States, where art programs are not required, ranks far behind in these subjects.

While Americans are given freedom of speech, we are not exploring our freedom of expression. By cutting the arts, we are stripping students of their voice.

By contrast, Regis Jesuit not only supports the arts but celebrates it. Year of the Arts is about exploring the creativity inside all of us. We have 13 dedicated teachers who show us the importance of art every day, something that can’t be said for other schools in our state.

Father Steele, who obtained a masters degree in painting and taught art for several years, was instrumental in making art more prevalent at Regis. “It bring life to everything,” he says.

“The history of the Jesuits is bound up in the arts, from the very beginning. For a variety of reasons we got away from that,” he says.
But, as Year of the Arts can attest, “Jesuit schools are once more very supportive.”

We often take the arts for granted. They spark creativity, inspire imagination, and change lives. At the end of the day, our schools need to learn that self expression is not a privilege but a right.