MONUMENT — Since the 1990s, cuts in music and art budgets forced many public schools across Oregon to pack away their tubas, drums, violins and microphones. Forced to go without music teachers, generations of kids may never have had the opportunity to strum a guitar.

This is true in both urban and rural communities, where music departments live or die depending upon the tax bracket of each school district. In rural Oregon, with sparse populations and little wiggle room in budgets, music can be a low priority.

Yet this doesn’t stop some from pushing to keep music spilling from classrooms. Thanks to the efforts of Ethos Music Center, which runs a rural outreach project that helps place music facilitators in underserved communities, some might be able to let their voices ring.

“Without programs like Ethos,” said Laura Thomas, the superintendent of Monument School District, “we would likely not be able to provide these opportunities to our students.”

“I love bringing music education to this area,” said Eroldi Idlore, the music facilitator for Monument, “and being a part of Ethos’ lineage that came before me is truly a rewarding feeling.”

From kindergarten through 6th grade, students have daily music lessons at Monument and can continue with music as an elective from seventh grade through high school.

After the cuts to art and music education in the late ‘90s, the budget for music education as a priority in the public school system was never restored, said Crystal de Alba, the executive director of Ethos.

Many small communities, like Monument, have limited tax bases and have trouble attracting talent or paying for a full-time music teacher, said Amorée Lovell, the director of the Ethos Rural Outreach Program.

This is where Ethos steps in. Funded through AmeriCorps, the program places music facilitators in rural communities, where they live and work for six to 11 months. Facilitators don’t need to have a degree in music or education, but they must be willing to teach four to five days a week.

“Our program helps to bridge the gap and allow Monument to pay off music programming,” Lovell said, “while building up support at the community level to fund that programming within the school.”

“That’s why what we do is so important,” de Alba added, “because if we’re not doing this, and similar organizations aren’t doing this work, it’s not going to get done.”

“It doesn’t exist outside of organizations like us,” she said.

For some, the music produced through the Ethos program is a communitywide event. In Monument, which has a population of somewhere around 150 residents, their spring recital last year brought out between 110 and 120 participants and attendees, according to Lovell.

“It was nothing but love and music, and it was glorious,” Lovell said. “It was wonderful.”

Music, she said, offers students a one-two punch of education and emotional expression.

“Simply put,” Lovell said, “music has the ability to express emotions and express words at times when words fail you.”

“For me, music is a gift,” Lovell added. “And for me, music is a communal and collaborative process.”

Due to COVID-19, Ethos had to reduce the number of schools it worked with, lowering the number to four in the 2021-22 school year: Monument, Mitchell, Falls City and Wolf Creek. Ideally, the group will work with about 10 schools a year, according to Lovell.

Lovell mentioned Ethos is still looking for more schools to partner with for next year and has six-month contracts available starting in January. Lovell Ethos looks for schools that are at least 35 miles away from a population center of 15,000 or more, haven’t had a music program within the last two to three years, have a majority of students on free or reduced-price lunch and where the community has an unemployment rate greater than the state average.

“It’s a pretty profound experience,” de Alba said. “I think teaching kids and teaching music and being in these beautiful, rural environments, it’s life-changing.”

“I can’t think of much more enjoyable jobs,” Lovell said, “than being a music teacher.”