I'm afraid I'm biased on this issue, having grown up in a musical household (my mother taught band and music for 28 years now, and now teaches music education at a university in New York). Music education and the arts in general are, I think, just as important as the "three r's". I think the undervaluing of music is indicative of a greater problem with how we tackle education in general; we seemed to have prioritized a preconceived notion of a successful and educated individual, usually killing original talent and creativity in the process.

As for sgt's quip, I'm going to have to pretty much agree with hev's objection. But, in general it isn't so much a problem of funding but emphasis and necessary institutions. As an example, public schools in the United States use to have (very generally speaking) better music education systems than private. However, "No Child Left Behind" put the emphasis on conforming the child to expected parameters ("the three r's") and standardized testing and off of the arts and developing creative talent. Now, minus maybe Catholic schools and other parochial schools, private schools have better music education programs. Again, this is mostly an emphasis issue; and even private schools can do much better. It's hard to fund a music program when a vast majority of your extracurricular funds go to sports.