Early fall in Georgia brings the sounds of high schoolers blaring trumpets and pounding drums from football stadiums – as well as the squeaks and squawks of beginner musicians practicing their newly rented instruments.

But these sounds do not echo equally across all of Georgia, said Alan Fowler, executive director of the Georgia Music Educators Association.

“I think the challenge in Georgia is that we have 180-plus school systems; not every school system has it as good as the others,” he said. “Each community has its own challenges, and finances are a big part of that. And you can’t get away from the fact that some communities just have more. That’s a fact.”

Schools in Georgia are funded through local property taxes as well as state money through the Quality Basic Education formula. That means districts in more affluent areas, where property values are higher, are less reliant on things like booster clubs or external grants for keeping the music playing.

But money isn’t everything, Fowler said, and Georgia school districts often produce excellent musicians without big budgets.

Success in Valdosta

Fowler said that’s the case at Valdosta City Schools. More than 90% of students qualify for free and reduced lunch in the south Georgia district, but the music program punches above its weight class. The Valdosta High School marching band has more than 200 members, and the high school wind symphony has been invited to perform at events outside the state next year, including a major music festival in Indianapolis.

“Our teachers just really work hard with the students to engage them and make them understand that we’re here to help them and support them if music is a wish for them,” said Tangela Kimber, director of fine arts and world languages at Valdosta City Schools. “We try not to make (finances) be a barrier for them.”

Kimber said Valdosta is able to do that in part because of help from organizations like the Tunes for Tots Foundation, a project of Athens-based rock band Widespread Panic.

Last year, Tunes for Tots contributed a $20,000 grant to the Valdosta Middle School band program, and Kimber said the foundation’s assistance allowed the district to launch a school orchestra program in the 2020-2021 school year.

High school football games are a big part of life around Georgia, and high school marching bands are a quintessential part of the game night tradition, which means even smaller districts usually have a band program. Orchestra programs are less common, especially outside of majo

r metro areas, where educators with specialties in string instruments are harder to come by.

Kimber called Valdosta’s orchestra one of the only ones of its kind in the region. She said the program started unconventionally, with director Keisha Thomas meeting students on weekends. Kimber said Thomas still holds weekend rehearsals with middle school orchestra students who join their high school peers for performances.

“They love it,” Kimber said. “They totally enjoy the experience. We even have them go on field trips to our neighboring college, Valdosta State University, we have them go and see their orchestra there, so it’s been a wonderful opportunity for our students.”

Funding down, expenses up

Educators in Georgia and across the country are also facing federal funding cuts to the Department of Education that could specifically harm arts programs.

Some of the cuts would hit professional development programs, said longtime music educator David Starnes, and that’s a problem in a job that’s already rather lonely.

“In a lot of schools, there’s one band director or one orchestra director or one choral director, and there’s not that networking opportunity, and so they’re kind of on an island,” he said

Starnes’ career has included directing the Kennesaw High School marching band when they won the 2004 Bands of America AAA national championship. He now works for the Marietta-based Gift of Music Foundation, a nonprofit that benefits youth music programs including through income and needs-based instrument rental programs, a repair shop that offers market-rate maintenance for schools and continuing education for music teachers.

“When a child will come in and they’re either on one of the free or reduced rental programs, and it happens a lot, especially this time of year, when kids are signing up for fifth and sixth-grade band and they walk in and they get that first instrument, there is nothing like it,” Starnes said.

But those instruments are getting more expensive. A Peterson Institute for International Economics analysis found that tariffs have raised prices and suppressed imports of musical instruments, especially beginner instruments.

And last month, the U.S. Department of Commerce proposed a 25% tariff on brass wind instruments like trumpets, trombones and tubas, which music educators worry could harm entire music programs.

Starnes also said he’s seen dues for some marching bands rise from $500 to over $2,000 to pay for things like designing the show, travel to games and competitions and staff.

“I’ve seen some programs really have to tap the brakes after three or four years straight of that to go, ‘We just can’t sustain this and we’re gonna lose kids and parents out of our program,’” he said.

Music technology

Participating in school music class often looks different than it did just a decade ago.

At Bear Creek Middle School in Fairburn just southwest of Atlanta, a classroom of students makes music on a small keyboard attached to an iPad while their teacher strolls around listening to their work through a big pair of DJ headphones.

Fulton County Schools performing arts coordinator Matt Koperniak said the district’s music technology classes are possible thanks to a grant from Save the Music, a national nonprofit that has raised more than $75 million for schools across the country, including Atlanta metro districts. Save the music offered grants to 13 Fulton County schools which helped pay for the hardware and software Koperniak says could help prepare them for jobs in Atlanta’s movie industry.

“Students are exposed to what we call industry standard skills that they’re learning so that, especially here in Atlanta, where the job market has identified music as a high-demand career for which there’s a need, those students are learning how to create music using these digital tools,” he said.

Koperniak said even with digital tools, the kids still make music manually, such as by recording themselves singing or playing guitar and drums and then looping and mixing the sound.

And there will always be benefits to children gathering together and making music the old fashioned way, he added.

“Our band students, our chorus students, our orchestra students, they’re learning valuable musical skills as well as valuable non-musical skills that future employers of all professions value,” he said. “Creativity, the ability to work together as a team, empathy, so many soft skills that are, that really are the human element to professions right now that are of the highest importance to employers.”

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