"The money in the schools overpowers the principles of the purpose"
About this Quote
Money is supposed to be the quiet backstage crew of education; Vitous is calling out the moment it storms the stage and starts rewriting the script. Coming from a musician - someone formed by conservatories, mentors, scholarships, gatekeeping, and the economics of “making it” - the line lands as an insider’s warning: when funding becomes the loudest voice in a school, the school stops behaving like a place of formation and starts behaving like a business with lesson plans.
The phrasing matters. “Overpowers” isn’t neutral; it’s physical, coercive, almost violent. It suggests principles aren’t merely “compromised” or “diluted” but actively subdued. And “principles of the purpose” has a slightly awkward, doubled emphasis that reads like insistence: schools are supposed to have a core mission that precedes budgets - curiosity, craft, citizenship, intellectual risk. When cash calls the shots, those aims get recast into measurable outputs, marketable programs, donor-friendly prestige, and administrative self-preservation.
In the arts especially, this dynamic can be brutal. Funding gravitates toward what can be branded, ticketed, and showcased; the slow, messy work of experimentation looks like waste. Vitous’s subtext is not naive anti-money romanticism; it’s a plea for hierarchy. Money is necessary, but it’s meant to serve the purpose, not substitute for it. The tragedy he’s pointing at is institutional: once financial logic becomes the purpose, even ideals get taught as electives.
The phrasing matters. “Overpowers” isn’t neutral; it’s physical, coercive, almost violent. It suggests principles aren’t merely “compromised” or “diluted” but actively subdued. And “principles of the purpose” has a slightly awkward, doubled emphasis that reads like insistence: schools are supposed to have a core mission that precedes budgets - curiosity, craft, citizenship, intellectual risk. When cash calls the shots, those aims get recast into measurable outputs, marketable programs, donor-friendly prestige, and administrative self-preservation.
In the arts especially, this dynamic can be brutal. Funding gravitates toward what can be branded, ticketed, and showcased; the slow, messy work of experimentation looks like waste. Vitous’s subtext is not naive anti-money romanticism; it’s a plea for hierarchy. Money is necessary, but it’s meant to serve the purpose, not substitute for it. The tragedy he’s pointing at is institutional: once financial logic becomes the purpose, even ideals get taught as electives.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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