Why should taxpayers pay for the arts in schools?

 Why allow the arts in education? What is so important about music, theatre, dance, ceramics, or painting that taxpayers should shell out millions of dollars a year for their inclusion in school curriculums? Why not divert our focus from the arts entirely and focus solely on STEM? After all are not Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math the way of the future? Are they not the tools needed by America's use to stay one step ahead of the rest of the world and keep this great country in the lead role on the international stage? They most certainly are, but what happens when we strike all but those four subjects from education? What happens when that analogy is no longer understood by the brilliant minds of tomorrow, those solving equation after equation in order to reach a goal? Absolutely nothing. Without the arts and without the creativity and individuality inspired by theatre, music, and visual art who had the new idea? Where is the creativity that leads to the incredible new spaceship which can transport fleets of humans to Mars. Gone. One could crunch numbers all day long and achieve absolutely nothing without the originality shaped through self expression in education. Science, technology, engineering, and math are the tools needed to achieve the goals of tomorrow, but the arts are the gateway that allow for those goals to exist.