Music education in public schools is slowly disappearing, with 75% of K-12 programs cutting arts funding since 2008. My own kids lost their elementary music teacher to budget cuts last year, and now they only get 30 minutes of music once a week. I worry we're raising a generation that can't read notes or appreciate classical composition, but I also wonder if that matters when streaming services put every song in the world in their pockets. Is formal music training still necessary for kids, or is exposure through apps like Spotify and YouTube enough?