Music education advocates sound alarm on cuts to B.C. school band programs

A music education advocacy group says it is "fiercely opposed" to the elimination of Grade 7 band, that has been confirmed or proposed as a money-saving measure by at least four B.C. school districts.

Surrey, the largest school district in the province, confirmed it was cutting its Grade 7 band last week. Burnaby, Maple Ridge and Merritt public schools have all recently proposed doing the same in service of balancing their budgets, which is required by law. 

Christin Reardon-MacLellan, a board member of the Coalition for Music Education in Canada, says that putting Grade 7 band on the chopping block is "alarming and deeply harmful to students."

"When you see it in four different school districts, including two of the gold standard districts for music education — Surrey and Burnaby — it's devastating," she said. "It's hard not to feel like it's an attack on music education."

But the chair of the Burnaby Board of Education says chronic underfunding is leaving school districts like hers with no option other than to cut student programs. 

'Hanging by a thread'

"The fact is that school districts are really, really hanging by a thread," said Kristin Schnider. "School districts are struggling, and we've been asking and talking to anyone who will listen about the fact that a real investment in public education is needed."

Schnider said the district is projecting a $4.2 million deficit for the next school year, $11.14 million combined over the next three years. 

Eliminating Grade 7 band at all 41 Burnaby public elementary schools will save the district $515,528 per year, or the equivalent of five full-time teachers. It's just one of 19 proposals on the table to save money.

"The elementary band program, as it currently exists, incurs an additional cost to the district that is not funded by the province. So this comes out of our operating reserves, and it has been an intentional decision by this board and past boards to protect it by using reserve dollars. The reality is we no longer have a reserve account," said Schnider.

'No longer sustainable'

In Maple Ridge, eliminating Grade 7 band will save the district approximately $82,000 per year, the equivalent of .625 of a teacher. 

"This extracurricular program, which serves approximately 200 elementary students annually, has been funded through general enrolment allocations for several years; however, continued funding is no longer sustainable," says the proposal to eliminate the program. 

According to a spokesperson, the Maple Ridge School District "is entering a period of significant and growing funding shortfalls across both capital and operational areas," with a projected deficit of $1.44 million for the 2026/2027 school year, and deficits of over $2 million in each of 2027/2028 and 2028/2029.

Meanwhile, the Nicola Similkameen School District has proposed cutting Grade 7 band in Merritt to save approximately $50,000 per year, the equivalent of half a full-time teacher. The move is one of many cost-cutting measures proposed to address the district's $1.5 million budget shortfall.

In a letter to the four school districts and Education Minister Lisa Beare, Reardon-MacLellan said cutting Grade 7 band undermines the Education Ministry's claims that B.C. has "one of the best education systems in the world." 

"It is lazy and contradictory to the world-class education system B.C. prides itself on," said Reardon-MacLellan. "If cuts need to be made, they should be equitable across all programs and expenses in the entire district — cutbacks that do not single out music and that do not propose elimination of an entire program."

The Coalition for Music Education in Canada has launched a letter-writing campaign to protest the band cuts, according to Reardon-MacLellan.