The Pittsburgh Public Schools face familiar challenges this new school year: limited funding, below-average student test scores, a racial achievement gap and competition from private and charter schools, to name a few.

		Evan Frazier is president and CEO of the Hill House Association and David Hillenbrand is president of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.

A product of and contributor to these problems is the erosion of arts and science programs in our schools, which each year adversely affects thousands of children. Many of those impacted are living in environments where crime and poverty are pervasive.

Cultural organizations can sit and watch helplessly as our schools face these innumerable challenges, or we can do what we do best: offer public school students art, science, music and technology as a promising quest for finding answers to some of life's most perplexing problems.

In the Hill District, one program called Mission Discovery has already successfully responded to these challenges. For the past three years, this out-of-classroom adventure has offered compelling, real-world science and technology experiences for middle school students. The Hill House provides the space and motivates community involvement. Carnegie Science Center provides the curriculum and the staff. Parents serve as volunteers actively participating in their children's educational experience.

Mission Discovery's ultimate success lies with the children who bring a desire to learn and the hope of making something wonderful of their lives. Because of their spirit and passion to succeed, the program works -- so much so that it recently received significant funding to expand and will now include offerings from all four Carnegie museums.

This program is an example of what a 2001 study at the University of Rochester revealed: children who participate in culturally based after-school programs experience an increase in self-esteem, relationship skills and leadership competencies -- all necessary ingredients for social achievement. These research results, as well as the spirited response of kids to programs like Mission Discovery, serve as a wake-up call for more science and arts programs -- programs that cultural organizations like the Carnegie Museums have an opportunity, and a responsibility, to enthusiastically and creatively provide.

By giving kids hope that they can be scientists, astronauts, composers and painters, the cultural community can transform a lazy summer day or a few after-school hours into a world of true self-discovery. By recognizing that public educators work incredibly hard, against difficult odds and with little pay or reward, cultural institutions can shore up these heroes of education by offering extracurricular programs that motivate their students' classroom efforts. And, by uniting families around a science fair or photography exhibit, we can encourage the support that children need to achieve their highest potential in life. If we can enhance one young life, then cultural programs are indeed an educational necessity, not a luxury.

We all suffer from the poor state of science and arts programs in many of our public schools. Imagine missing out on the next August Wilson, Andy Warhol or Rachel Carson. They all attended nearby public schools, and they all explored their passions outside the classroom, whether in a library, on a stage or with a blank journal and pen.

The great scientist and educator George Washington Carver once said, "New developments are the products of a creative mind ... we must therefore stimulate and encourage that type of mind in every way possible."

We look forward to working with Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt on collaborative, supportive programs that will foster many young, creative minds in the future.