Cuts Strike Sour Note

In recent years, supporters of the music program in Roselle (Ill.) School District No. 12 have gotten used to disappointment. Since 1994, the local band boosters have rallied behind four separate referendums for property-tax increases in their 725-student K-8 district. Voters shot them down each time.

But when they lost the battle again in March, the defeat was especially agonizing. Without the proposed tax hike--50 cents per $100 of assessed property value--students in the Chicago suburb will have to pay about $30 a month to participate in band. "It just bothers me to have to fund what I consider a necessity," says Robert Steffen, a parent in the district whose 5th grade son plays the saxophone. "It divides our community into haves and have-nots, and education is supposed to be made available for everybody."

National advocates for music education say they have seen problems like those in Roselle all too often. Faced with shrinking budgets and a reluctance among residents to shoulder a heavier tax burden, many districts have been forced to set priorities and trim programs that they consider extras or frills. Often, music is among the first to go, especially at...