K–12 arts education — viewed as a necessity by many parents, but often crowded out of school budgets and instructional time — can boost students’ writing skills and build empathy, according to a study published late last year. Kids participating in a citywide arts program in Houston also saw improved behavior and increased college aspirations, the authors found.
First circulated as a working paper before the pandemic, the article was accepted for publication in November at the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Its conclusions are difficult to ignore after both schools and the arts world were rocked by COVID-19, with an estimated hit to the creative economy totaling millions of jobs and tens of billions of dollars lost in 2020 alone. Arts education in some states had to be sustained through the infusion of emergency funds from Washington.