I think the problem more lies with Education as a whole. Yes there are a lot of Band Directors leaving, but there are a lot of teachers leaving overall. The support of public education has never been very strong in my opinion, and now even that little bit of support has eroded away.

It is a number of factors, I don't believe its any one thing. However, I believe you can lump a lot of the attention on TEA and our compensation (or lack thereof). More and more unfunded mandates, required trainings, unattainable standards, silly and time wasting procedures, little parental support, and of course the political discourse that rips apart the institution.

Competitive Marching Band is far from the only educational positions that people are leaving in droves, although I think we can take a look at that as well. I am always looking for ways to be at home more, but it seems that more and more I am away. Honestly, not sure about what to do about it.

I wonder if next year will be even worse for education. With everyone leaving, those of us still left will have to pick up the slack and there is not going to be some big push to do anything about that in the next two months. Look how long it took to put together some BS "task force".