Arts cuts hurt students, teachers say

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - State lawmakers will be back at work Thursday trying to pass a budget and find money to keep Lucas Oil Stadium and Conseco Fieldhouse running. That will likely mean huge cutbacks in funding for the arts, which some say could hurt kids in the classroom.

For 13 years, the Institute For Artful Teaching -- part of the Young Audiences of Indiana -- has been showing teachers how to add art to academic subjects.

"If we lose the arts, we lose the chance for the kids to be involved in a way that they get excited. And when they are excited and engaged they are going to learn better," said Len Mozzi of the Institute for Artful Teaching.

Fifth grade teacher Jeanne Mathews said, "That's, some of them, that is the best way that they learn...through music, through visual arts. And if we lose that, I really feel we are losing those children."

Children, the teachers say, don't have to be lost if lawmakers put arts on the same level as professional sports.

"I don't think it has to be a case of either/or. I think they need to find the money for both of them," said Sidener Academy teacher Marcia Lockwood.

But lawmakers say that's easier said than done. Under the current proposal by the governor, groups like Young Audiences of Indiana could lose 50 percent of their government funding. In anticipation of that, Young Audiences has already cut its staff by nearly 25 percent.