N.J. leads in arts education but there are rising challenges

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!

New Jersey is often held up as a national leader when it comes to arts education, holding the distinction of first state to provide universal access. State law requires public schools to teach the arts, and nearly every district reports offering at least some form of visual or performing arts instruction.

The state now claims nearly 80% participation around the state, meaning more than 985,000 of the 1.2 million students in New Jersey take arts classes. Many districts boast 100% participation, including the Camden City School District and others in South Jersey.

That was the culmination of years of advocacy, working with policymakers, parents and even students, says Wendy Liscow, executive director of Arts Ed NJ, a nonprofit coalition founded in 2007.

“It’s a big challenge to increase arts education in our state and raise awareness, so you have to have everyone at the table,” Liscow said.

While various initiatives and standards regarding arts education in the state were implemented as early as 1996, the landmark achievement of universal access to arts education in all public schools was officially announced in September 2019.

New Jersey’s visual and performing arts standards are written into the state’s academic code, placing them on equal footing with subjects like math and English language arts. Students are required to earn five credits of arts instruction to graduate from high school, and those credits now count toward a student’s GPA.

That policy shift helped legitimize the arts in the eyes of students and parents, said Liscow, who joined Arts Ed NJ in 2022.

“In the past, arts courses didn’t always count the same way,” she said. “Now students who care about the arts can say, ‘This matters. This helps me get to college.’”

As elsewhere, visual arts and music dominate arts education in New Jersey. More than 820,000 students are in visual arts classes, and nearly 750,000 are taking music classes. There are nearly 4,000 teachers in each discipline. Fewer than 50,000 students are enrolled in either theater or dance, subjects for which there are only a few hundred teachers each.

However, some disparities in access to creative and performing arts classes still exist, with some school districts still falling below the legal mandates. About 3.4% of students, about 42,000, lack any such opportunity. Liscow said recent budgetary challenges at the federal and state levels have forced advocates to work harder just to preserve their earlier gains.

Liscow also noted that rising costs — from tariffs and other upward pressures — have been among the bigger challenges for districts, especially less wealthy ones. Tariffs may partly explain that, she said.

“The dollars that they have are getting 30 to 40% less,” she said. “So when they’re buying something, it’s costing them 30 to 40% more. So even staying level is going to get us less in this culture and each district will decide if staying level might be a win right now.”

That’s a sentiment shared by Craig Vaughn, superintendent of Springfield Township School District in Burlington County.

“My district has certainly taken it on the chin with the loss of state aid that’s caused some cuts in other areas,” he said. “But my board’s been supportive of making sure that we keep teachers in place that teach art and music. We’ve been really fortunate to get some grants that have grown our program and offered some things that are on more of the extracurricular basis.”

The Springfield district consists of only a single elementary school, for which Vaughn also serves as the principal. He added that they had to get “creative” in order to ensure continued access by hiring dual-certified teachers and joining a shared service agreement with a neighboring district.

“I think it’s more on the local side that we’re doing a lot to support these things than maybe the state is,” he said.

Liscow said she applauds such efforts, noting that early exposure is “critical” and that maintaining earlier gains is essential to the state’s future.

“You can’t suddenly become a dancer at 14 or 15,” she said. And “it’s very easy to cut a program, but it can take 10 years to get it back.”

Recently, Arts Ed NJ created a Youth Arts Ed Council in which students from 21 high schools around the states themselves learn to advocate for themselves.

“They learn the power of their voice and agency,” Liscow said. “And I think it’s been a really successful project, because policymakers, administrators listen to young people more than they might listen to an adult.”