Eden Prairie has now made it so that students have to have 54 credits to graduate.  The number used to be 48.

What does this mean for Adventure Boy (starting High School next year)?

It means that if he wishes to remain in Band, he will incur a greater "music penalty" than students have in previous years.

84% of his classes (as opposed to the 75% previously) will be required coursework.

Band, Orchestra and Choir are "elective" courses.  Beyond that, they are what are called "skinny" courses, meaning that they only meet for 45 minutes, and are paired with a 45 minute study hall.  I just attended a meeting where the High School gifted and talented councilor was very discouraging to the parents of high achieving students about their kids proceeding in music.

Our High School only has four 90 minute class periods per day.  This allows teachers to really dig into a subject, and reduces wasted time for things like classroom changes, getting students to settle down, that wasted last five minutes of classtime when you are winding down the days business, etc.  It is a good scheme, and much more efficient.  One years worth of material is covered in a single semester and in a more intensive fashion.  Students can concentrate study time at home as well, only focusing on four subjects at a time rather than dividing available study time and scheduling between projects and study for six subjects.

But because the music classes are only 45 minutes, they are worth only half as many credits, though they essentially committ all of the student's time for electives.

This means that if Adventure Boy wants to be in band, he will have no other electives in High School.  It will also mean that he has absolutly zero "wiggle room" should he fail a class (not that I'm worried, he's never recieved an "F" yet).  If he stays in Band throughout High School, he will not be able to take any other electives, and he cannot fail a single class or he will not graduate with his class.

Since he has been relegated to the lowest possible math track, and would like to catch up, he will most likely have to spend at least one semester out of Band., so that he can take additional math courses as electives.

Most High Schools when I was growing up had disincentives for studying music as well, but this just made it worse.

I am going to look into other options, like the Community Band, private lessons, and I'm wondering if you have to be in the regular band to try out for Marching band.  I would bet not.  Because it is a priority for us, and because we are willing to spend the money and time, Adventure Boy will have a music education.

Unfortunatly for families with fewer resources, I think this is just one more step in a multi-decade trend of sqeezeing out music education in the schools.  If student utilization of the program drops, then it will be easy to cut.  It's already happened in a number of rural school districts in the state.