Question of the Week: What's Your Take on Last Week’s Student Protest?

More than 20 students from the Fort Lee High School Academy of Performing Arts (APA) attended last week’s Fort Lee Board of Education meeting wearing red duct tape over their mouths to protest cuts to the APA program and to appeal to the board to reconsider the elimination of one their teachers’ jobs—a teacher in the APA’s dance program. The red tape represented their not having a voice when it comes to decisions they say directly affects them.

School administrators say enrollment in the program is low with anywhere from as few as four to as many as 12 students in each class and that having someone teach that few students isn’t fiscally responsible—especially with a school budget shortfall.

But several Patch readers and bloggers voiced their support for the students’ actions and for arts education in general.

One Patch reader, however, said he wasn’t so sure the students should be applauded to the extent they were.

“Students have been protesting in Fort Lee since I went to school,” he wrote. “I don't want to sound unsupportive, but it is fun to protest something you have no control of. I have not seen too many of those younger protesters grow up and return to Fort Lee to save their schools.”

Now we want to know what you think, and we want to keep this debate going. What did you think about last week’s student protest? Do you think it was an admirable thing for the students to do? Do you think it will get them anywhere or have the desired effect? And where do you stand on funding for arts programs in schools?