Art is critcally important to life, and to earning a living. I can make a case that it's more important than algebra. The study of art teaches creative thinking. When was the last time you had to find a creative solution to a problem at work? When was the last time you had to solve a quadratic equation?
I'm as tight with a tax buck as anybody, but art (and music) dollars are money well spent. Sports dollars I'm not so sure about.
The sort of art that has any real value emerges from real knowledge and experience, not from gawking at art in museums or taking classes in how to make art. And the notion of government-sponsored art or art education should make any thinking person cringe. Government-sponsored art will serve the government.
A great deal of what passes for "art" in present-day museums is nothing more than sloppy messes made by self-absorbed individuals. Parading a bunch of 5th graders around a museum, telling them that everything they see there is "art", from intricate landscapes and religious and battle scenes in oil by highly skilled artists of past centuries, to piles of rubble at risk for being carried off by janitors who reasonably assume it to be trash, conveys the message that any stupid thing you make is worthwhile. Meanwhile, these kids don't have a clue as what the images depicted in the real art are all about, because nobody thinks it's important for them to learn any facts about history. The Black Death? Is that like what those Goths kids are into? The Civil War? That was way back before the Revolutionary War, right? So the main thing they remember about the day is giggling at the naked statue -- and that's what they told their parents about when asked "What did you see on the museum trip today?".
A few years back, I was briefly acquainted with a very nice young Jewish woman who had recently graduated from one of the top 20 liberal arts colleges in the US with an English major (another pursuit that we're supposed to believe has value). During a casual discussion with some other (better informed) young people, someone made a passing comment about Jews still waiting for the Messiah. "But there's no Messiah in the Jewish religion", she protested, saying she'd would certainly know if there was, since her grandmother was Orthodox. She literally had no clue that the Christian religion is founded on a belief in the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy. But she did enjoy going to the big art museum in the nearby city, like all the other English, art history, philosophy, etc. majors. I lost track of her when she moved away to go to graduate school in English. She's probably ended up teaching "language arts" in some middle school, encouraging kids to think that anything they write has artistic value.
We really need to get serious about our schools before it's too late. We've got a whole generation of teachers who are mostly clueless, because they themselves were educated in this no-standards ideology. And then we wonder why voters can't see through the vote-buying financial schemes that politicians keep thrusting down their throats, and why we can't find competent security screeners for our airports.