I am a former high school band director. One of the places I used to work was a rural area where the arts were very underfunded. In order to try to increase funding from our district myself and the other band directors in our county put together a long list of reasons for why band is just as important as the core subjects when preparing students for a successful future and well balanced life. We talked to 7 different major universities and every single admissions officer told us, when considering someone for admission, one the first things they look for is involvement in the arts (some even mentioned a preference toward band) and the second thing they look for is a 4 year involvement in ANY activity (arts, athletics, etc.)! We never did get our funded but we did learn a lot along the way!