{"id":2501596,"date":"2026-07-14T14:12:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T14:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2501596"},"modified":"2026-07-14T14:12:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T14:12:02","slug":"new-initiative-helps-fund-music-programs-in-charter-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/new-initiative-helps-fund-music-programs-in-charter-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"New initiative helps fund music programs in charter schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2014 The power of music is undeniable, especially in schools, according to experts. Multiple studies have shown that students who play an instrument in school tend to do better in the classroom. Music can also help lessen the stress, especially for struggling students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A funding gap<\/a> means many public charter schools in New York have to make tough choices. A new Rochester nonprofit is helping to put instruments in the hands of students \u2014 where they\u2019re needed most.<\/p>\n

Mastering the art of music takes a sound foundation. It is something fourth graders at Rochester Prep are building upon. But it takes time.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yeah. It was very hard to learn,\u201d said Nicklaus Bailey, who plays violin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gets me really nervous,\u201d said Fernanda Rangel. \u201cBut once you play it, you get more excited.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rochester Prep<\/a> is a charter school. Students in the music program there have to have good grades and must show up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have class on a daily basis, and that also helps with the attendance at the school,\u201d said Michelle Walker, the school\u2019s Suzuki strings coordinator. \u201cThe kids are very motivated to come and play their instrument every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funding for music programs in public charter schools can be tricky. In Rochester, schools like Rochester Prep get just a portion of the funding that traditional public schools do, about 42 cents on the dollar.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we have to do a lot more with less,\u201d said Christie Raymo, the school\u2019s director of development.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where a new initiative comes in. Sound Foundations of Rochester<\/a> is a nonprofit that invests in public charter schools, with donors providing money for music programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to help these students,\u201d said Melinda Goldberg, executive director of Sound Foundations. \u201cWhat can we do? What would they benefit from? And after doing some research, the answer was music.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the K-4 charter school Innova Girls Academy<\/a>, it\u2019s the difference between having music class \u2014 and not. Administrators say they\u2019re seeing real results in the classroom too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see more participation in class, in math, in ELA,\u201d said Innova co-founder Lindsay Swanson. \u201cWe see better behavioral outcomes, that some of our more challenging kiddos get engaged in this positive start. And that just carries through.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is something we are paying attention to, because this program does build that education foundation at the youngest years,\u201d said Raymo. \u201cAnd when our children have that habit formation, that discipline that builds each year throughout high school.\u201d<\/p>\n

And beyond \u2014 especially for students like Bailey, who sees a future in music.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have a pathway through where we go into a program where we get free lessons, and we don’t have to pay for college,\u201d said Bailey. \u201cI really want that, because we won’t be able to afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these kids wouldn’t have the opportunity to do this,\u201d said Walker. \u201cStrings is expensive. Purchasing an instrument is expensive, and then getting private lessons is way more expensive. And so it’s nice to give this opportunity to our scholars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Studies have shown time and again that among young learners, there is power in music. Sometimes, a sound foundation just needs a little help.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s the bottom line,\u201d said Goldberg. \u201cWhat can we do to help these students succeed in school and beyond?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source spectrumlocalnews.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2014 The power of music is undeniable, especially in schools, according to experts. Multiple studies have shown that students who play an instrument in school tend to do better in the classroom. Music can also help lessen the stress, especially for struggling students.\u00a0 A funding gap means many public charter schools in New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2501597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[21866,424641,306918,21738,356692,492957,71501],"class_list":["post-2501596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-education","tag-good-news","tag-human-interest","tag-news","tag-rochester","tag-seth-voorhees","tag-vod"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/New-initiative-helps-fund-music-programs-in-charter-schools.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2501596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2501598,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501596\/revisions\/2501598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2501597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2501596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2501596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2501596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}