As public schools place more emphasis on standardized testing, there is a concern that arts education will fall by the wayside.

Virginia Tech music professor Vernon Burnsed says he has not seen signs of that happening in this state, but he has put together a program to try to boost the quality of music education in the region anyway. Under the Virginia Tech String Project, music teachers will visit area elementary schools starting next week to recruit third- and fourth-graders to take lessons for string instruments at Tech. Burnsed answered questions on his program and the state of music education in the region.

There is a lot of concern about public school music education's future given the emphasis on testing in other subjects. As a music professor have you seen any changes in your field that would support those concerns?

Vernon Burnsed: Not really. I ask around, I look on the Web sites, and I haven't really seen that. In fact, we have a shortage of music teachers. ... I get calls every day, almost, during the summer about positions available here and there. I think most administrators and government leaders do realize the value of a broad, comprehensive education. Even though we're kind of being forced into this standardized testing mode, I think there's been so much written about the positive benefits of music and the arts. ... I think we're in good shape.

Other than becoming professional musicians one day, how are students likely to benefit from studying music?

VB: Well, I can talk to you all day about that. There has been so much research in the last 10 years about the effects of studying music and the arts. I just read a recent study just last week that shows this really positive relationship between the study of music and the quality of music and standardized test scores. So there's the intellectual benefit. There's a social benefit of working together with kids and other people, a responsibility benefit, discipline benefits. And, most importantly I think, are the aesthetic benefits. The more you study music the less it becomes just a sonic background, but it becomes more meaningful to you. Your emotional interaction with music is enhanced.

What inspired the Virginia Tech String Project?

VB: One of the things that struck me is there is a big shortage of string teachers. ... The demand has gone up, students taking string lessons has risen like 79 percent in the last decade alone, so there's this shortage, there's this need. And plus, here in this region, our goal is to improve and develop music education for everyone, and we don't have strings in the public schools here, except in Roanoke city.

What is the goal of the program?

VB: Our goal here is to enhance the overall music education program of the region and also our own program here [at Tech]. We have a really strong choral program, a really strong band program. This will help fill the void of string education that's not only on campus but everywhere here in the region. ... Right now if I have string major, which I have a kid this semester, she has to go to Roanoke. ... I can't go there every semester with people, so the more we develop here the more I'll have a better program for our own students to study, and at the same time it will hopefully uplift the whole quality of education [in the region].

By going into public schools to promote private lessons, no matter how affordable, doesn't that send a message that this is a luxury for students to get outside of school, as opposed to a vital part of the in-school curriculum?

VB: That was a big concern. We thought about it and said, "Now are we going to cause it not to happen in the public schools?" But what we did, we looked at the projects like this, and there are lots of them in the country, over 20 projects like this throughout the country. I was down at the University of South Carolina, which is probably the most successful one, and [at first] they had no strings in the public schools, had the same situation we had here. They started it and now there are strings in every public school in Columbia and the surrounding region. What happens is that it blossoms.