Academic subject selection goes beyond just deciding what is best for students to learn; factors such as school finances, staff training and skills, local traditions, and community and parental support also impact such decisions. Various subjects have had a centuries old stability in the schools such as mathematics, reading, science, English, and history. Others subjects are common but not universal over time or place such as economics, foreign languages, and the arts. In the past fifty years, instruction in the arts have alternately ascended and descended in their popularity, vitality, and support, especially in the K-12 grades. Music has taken some of the biggest and more frequent cuts among the arts due, in great part, to the high costs of sheet music and instrument purchase and repair. In this article, the author explains that music is among the most important subjects taught in schools and should not be placed high on the list of curriculums that will be scrapped when schools are faced with financial woes. (Contains 18 notes).