Many, if not most, of the arts organizations in Columbus are very involved in the schools.

The Springer’s program is the largest. Our arts-in-education program, ArtServe, serves some 15,000 students a year -- providing workshops, classroom visitations, performances, bus transportation, talkbacks, study guides, ticket subsidies and other services to the schools. We also provide a ticket discount for school teachers throughout the year. This is a huge initiative that we fund through grants, corporate support and small donations from the community. The MCSD provides no funding support for this program.

So why do we do it? Because we are passionately committed to having an impact on the things that all the major studies have shown -- that attendance, graduation rates, test scores and love of learning are amplified when children have experiences with the arts as part of their education.

When we hear administrators cite those studies as the reason for creating a fine arts academy here, it is heartening to see that they have accepted what the arts community has been screaming about for many years.

However, there’s something missing here. Something big.

If the school board and district administrators are devoted to improving attendance, graduation rates, test scores, etc. through music, theatre, dance and visual arts, then why-oh-why aren’t we hearing about a plan for providing those experiences for every single child in every single school?

Funding for arts programs in our schools is nothing short of abysmal, and it has gotten progressively worse over the years.

The meager resources that this school district currently provides for arts instruction, facilities and supplies is far more illustrative of its true values than any over-the-horizon dream of a fine arts magnet.

So, no, I am not currently a proponent of a fine arts academy magnet, because it is an idea without a vision attached to it.

If, on the other hand, I heard a plan that includes an expansion of facilities, teachers and supplies in every school in our district -- a plan that coincided with the grand opening of the fine arts academy -- our organization would become the biggest, loudest cheerleader for the concept. Anything short of that appears to be just another “feather in our cap” whim with no substance and no overarching goal.

Clearly, there are top veteran arts instructors in our system who are just itching to get out of the underfunded, poorly maintained, underappreciated arts backwaters that so many of our schools have become. They are understandably excited about the possibility of working in a school that is lavished with resources and where there is a culture of excellence, collaboration and excitement. Who wouldn’t be?

But while those teachers and the relatively few kids who go to that school could clearly benefit from its creation, my central question remains -- what about the other children? If we really and truly believe that integrating the arts into education creates better, happier, more productive students, then why aren’t we talking about all the kids and not just a few?

The construction and operation of such a school would be far costlier than anything the MCSD has ever built. If we are to do anything remotely comparable to the fine arts academies in other cities, this is a facility that would house two or three theatres with lighting, sound and rigging systems.

It would also include dance studios and rehearsal halls, a scenic construction shop, costume construction shop, art studios for painting/welding/sculpting, band and chorus rehearsal facilities and an enormous amount of storage space for instruments, production equipment and supplies.

Oh, yes, and it would need a full compliment of traditional classrooms with up-to-date computers and smart boards. The $15 million currently budgeted would not touch the construction costs of such a facility. A small elementary school, maybe -- but not a fine arts academy.

And the operating costs? The designers, technicians, shop managers, electricians, lumber, steel, fabric, chemicals, paint, hardware, royalties, musical instruments and musical scores will be essential elements of the arts classrooms and production projects.

And all the while, arts teachers in schools all around this district are paying for their own supplies, band directors are buying drum heads and reeds out of their own pockets and some schools can’t even afford to buy the bulbs for the klieg lights on their stages.

I’m all for transforming children’s educational experience through the arts. I’ve spent my life doing it. But arts for all, not some.

Paul R. Pierce, producing artistic director, Springer Opera House; ppierce@springeroperahouse.org.