By: Liam Fenwick, Reporter
OMAHA, Neb. – At the Omaha Conservatory of Music Jessica Hanson can be found playing violin in her office. Hanson is a violin instructor and a musician. Hanson, said she knows why music programs get cut from public schools.
“We’re not something like a band that plays at the football games or something like that. So I think public schools a lot of the time cut the string program first. Which is a little unfortunate because it takes away that opportunity from Students to learn,” Hanson said.
In a case study conducted by the Save the Music Foundation, 94 percent of public school teachers reported an increase in student academic engagement due to music education funding. Hanson also said that students can benefit greatly from learning an instrument.
It just helps them in so many different aspects of the person who they are becoming, that it’s just very beneficial. For anyone really,” Hanson said.
Hanson is not the only music teacher that believes that a focus on music can improve youth education. Other local music teachers feel the same way.
Heidi Bush is the Operations Manager at Sing Omaha. She said that her students take what they learn from music and apply it to other aspects of academics.
“We see a lot of students that grow through learning piano and getting to watch them in their school setting. So getting to see them as they grow in their skills with us, and then apply those to their musical at school or show choir,” Bush said.
Bush said that her and her staff enjoy being able to impact their student’s lives in a positive way.
In the past five years, the National Endowment for the Arts distributed over 5 million dollars in grants for arts in Nebraska. A portion of the money has been given to music education.
