The future of arts education

So the other day I was watching 30 Rock or Louie on Hulu and the commercial that came on was about the importance of funding the arts. What struck me was the reasoning they used to make their case. Now I don't remember the exact line that they used, but it was something along the lines of, 'The arts are important because they raise math and reading scores.' This strikes me as, one, probably true, and two, as exactly the wrong type of argument to make if you want the arts to be a substantial part of our children's curriculum. The fact that math and reading scores are raised somewhat by taking art classes does nothing to assure art a place in the future. In fact you have conceded the argument by basing your judgement on the importance of art on its ability to raise these other test scores. If this is really all, or mostly, what we should focus on then why have art at all. Wouldn't it be better just to add the time spent in art class into math, because I am sure that studying math raises math scores much more than if we spent that time on photography or band or whatever.

Now I am not an artistic person, I can't draw or play an instrument, but it seems to me that their is a strong argument for art classes in all levels of our schools. This argument just has to do with fostering creativity and independent thinking, and, sadly, is very hard to verify empirically. It is important to remember that our goal is not little reading and calculating machines, but rather well rounded young adults who posses some basic level of skills and can think critically and independently about the new information and problems that they are going to be faced with.