This story originally appeared in the February 2025 issue of Texas Monthly as part of our public-education feature, “What Our Schools Actually Need.” No state in the country does fine arts better, or at least bigger, than Texas. Every February, about 1,870 All-State band, choir, jazz, mariachi, and orchestra musicians descend on the San Antonio River Walk during the Texas Music Educators Association’s clinic and convention. Annually, around 1,200 high schools compete in the University Interscholastic League’s One-Act Play contest, which David Stevens, the UIL director of academics, calls the largest high school theater festival in the world. And these students represent only a fraction of the nearly 1.9 million who enroll in arts electives each year, on average, with state law requiring one year of arts…
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