Ingenuity State of the Arts Report 2016-17 Ingenuity_SOTA_2016-17 | Page 59

FUNDING
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The most persistent challenge to attaining all the goals of the CPS Arts
Education Plan is maintaining adequate funding to fulfill staffing and
instructional goals. As school budgets fluctuate and shrink, principals are
forced to make difficult decisions in attempts to balance arts staffing needs
with other equally important staffing or capital needs. When they decide
how much to invest in the arts from their annually-allocated student-based
budgets, which may include public monies such as federal Title I and state
supplements to high-poverty schools, principals are collectively determining
the district’s arts education environment; by far the largest portion of
the district’s funding for the arts comes from these decisions made at the
school level by principals.
The most notable funding story over the past five years is that, despite
the fiscal challenges and uncertainty they have faced, most schools have
demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to the arts through their
spending decisions. For five years, Ingenuity has reported on the total
amount spent on the arts by CPS schools in three categories: the amount
schools spend on instructor salaries and benefits, the amount schools
dedicate for the arts beyond these salaries, and the amount the district
spends to fund the operations of the Department of Arts Education.
As shown in the graphic below, principals continued to increase their
investment in the arts through investment in instructor salaries. The total
estimated investment in salaries and benefits for arts instructors has
increased by 33 percent, from $103,460,684 in 2012–13, the first year
of the CSC, to $137,956,559 in 2016–17. 33
CPS SCHOOL-BASED FUNDING FOR THE ARTS CONTINUES TO GROW
$140M
 I  nstructor Salaries
and Benefits
  School Dedicated
Arts Budget
  Department of
Arts Education
$120M
$100M
$80M
$60M
$40M
$20M
2012–13
2013–14
2014–15
2015–16
2016–17
SCHOOL YEAR
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While the increased Creative Schools Survey response rate plays a role in this increase, Ingenuity has
always relied on CPS administrative data to estimate staffing and instructor salaries and benefits.
These administrative data do not vary based on changes in survey response rates, which means that the
increased survey response rate should not account for all of the growth in this spending estimate.
PROGRESS REPORT | 2016–17