Source: NYT > Business (paywall)
Tariff-driven price spikes on imported instruments—cellos up $1,000, tubas to $9,000—are forcing schools to choose between music education and operational survival. Affluent districts absorb the costs while under-resourced schools cut programs entirely, rationing classical training by geography and wealth. This narrows the pipeline for professional musicians and removes a key equity lever in American education. Music programs operate on fixed budgets with no political constituency loud enough to demand exemptions, making them first casualties of blunt trade policy.