Arts education is being squeezed out, inequitably funded and delivered by underqualified teachers in schools across Ontario, according to a new report released Tuesday.

Schools in Brantford’s Catholic board “barely have storage space, let alone additional space for any learning outside the normal classroom environment,” one principal reported, when asked about their arts offerings for the report.

“Our teaching staff allotment doesn’t afford us the opportunity to have specialist teachers,” added a principal in the Lambton Kent District School Board in southwestern Ontario.

And in the province’s largest French-language board, one principal reported that their arts space would soon be “lost,” converted to a daycare.

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It’s a system where schools’ arts budgets can range from a luxurious $100,000 per year to a meagre $500 — with those budgets often determined by parents’ ability to fundraise — according to the 2018 arts education report from People for Education.

The report crunches numbers to paint a picture of inequity in public education, particularly taking opportunity away from students at smaller rural schools, schools with higher levels of poverty and schools with lower levels of parental education.

“We were really struck by principals talking about difficulties having a big enough budget for musical instruments, relying on parents for fundraising, concerned about teachers not having enough specialized training to be able to deliver really good strong arts programs,” said Annie Kidder, executive director of People for Education.

“But I think that the overall concern of principals and of ours is the inequity that’s kind of built in, because schools are relying on fundraising for their arts budgets.”

The Star has previously reported on the fundraising gap between schools in the province, with some bolstering their budgets with up to $150,000 in “extras” every year. Until recently, there was no provincial funding dedicated to the arts, the new report notes.

“School boards can determine how much funding they allocate to schools for the arts, and beyond that schools can fundraise for things like arts excursions, visiting artists or musical instruments,” the report says.

Instruments can sit stagnant and broken in some schools, until the end of the year when budgetary bottom lines are determined, one principal from Dufferin Peel’s Catholic board reported. Even then, the principal said those instruments might not be fixed — there may not be any money for it.

In elementary schools, the report found that only 4 per cent of schools that responded have an annual arts budget of more than $5,000; 27 per cent have a budget of less than $500 for arts per year.

In secondary schools, 20 per cent fall in the higher end of funds with more than $10,000 per year. Only 3 per cent are still below $500 in arts funding per year.

The impact of arts education on students has been under the lens in the United States recently, through the exploration of the theatre and public speaking experience gleaned in school by teen survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas — many of whom have since taken on the role of public voices in the U.S. gun control debate.

Kidder said the discussion of those teens’ arts education is relevant “in a number of ways” to People for Education’s newest report.

“I think what it points to is that, through arts education, all students can learn, yes, how to be articulate and communicate, but also to persist and be resilient,” she said, also listing collaboration, social-emotional skills and empathy as by-products of arts education.

“Through learning music or drama or dance or fine arts, you learn to practise. You learn to persist when things don’t work out, and to go back in again.”

“No matter what you do as an adult — in your job, in your life, as a citizen — these are foundational skills.”

Arts budgets appear to be connected with the availability of arts program space in elementary schools, the report notes. Teaching and learning in the arts requires a great deal of space, for instruments, supplies, movement or otherwise.

Principals who participated in the People for Education report “frequently cited” a lack of specialized space as a barrier to providing arts education. The issue was particularly severe for schools at ministry-defined capacity for students, Kidder said.

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“Does your school look empty if you’re keeping classrooms open for arts space?” she asked.

This year’s data showed elementary schools in urban areas as being three times more likely to have a budget over $5,000. Rural schools, they wrote, are also less likely to have specialized arts teachers and arts learning spaces. One principal from Keewatin-Patricia District School Board noted that recruiting qualified teachers to come to their smaller communities was a challenge.

“We did feel that despite the widely recognized importance of arts education, that there is not necessarily equitable access to arts programs and resources, and arts enrichment,” Kidder said. “And we’re really worried about that.”