In many school districts across America, music education programs are either being cut from schools or are are being justified through secondary reasons. There is a popular idea known as the "Mozart effect," which essentially states that children who study music tend to have higher test scores in other academic disciplines. While this is a positive trait, it should not be the primary or sole justification for music education simply because other disciplines would be more suited to raising their own scores. Music education certainly can accomplish objectives such as raising academic scores or developing time management skills, but this is not the primary objective of music education and should not be the main reason for music education in schools.

Rather, music education deserves to be taught in schools for its function as aesthetic education in the teaching of the whole child. Music functions as art in the idea that its primary function is to make objective the subjective realm of human feeling and emotion. This exploration into the realm of human feeling through music is critical for the socio-emotional growth of a student: allowing students a chance to express their experiences in ways that are nonverbal. These experiences of performing, creating, and evaluating music as an art lend themselves to students, in addition to developing as musicians, developing into emotionally fluent adults with inclinations toward empathy and creativity.

The opportunity for a quality music education is something that all students should have in the school career. Their eligibility for acceptance into a quality class should not be dependent on the skill level, and consequently, all schools should have multiple opportunities for students to participate in music education. Traditional mainstays of music such as band, choir, and orchestra should not be done away with: but rather, additional experiences should be made available for students: either through direct participation in alternative classes or collaboration with traditional classes through different academic disciplines.