A paint brush: $12. A canvas: $30. A fine arts education: priceless.

So goes the philosophy of the Hall County Board of Education, which has put fine arts programs at the bottom of the list of potential programs to be cut due to ever-tightening budget constraints.

With the state facing a $2.2 billion budget shortfall in the current year, school systems expect an even tighter budget next year. While the Hall County school board and Hall County schools superintendent Will Schofield have gotten creative with transportation, personnel and instruction funds in an effort to keep cuts from affecting education, they said they're committed to keeping dance, drama, art and music programs afloat.

Schofield said the school system plans to cut at least $10 million out of next school year's budget to keep the system in the black.

"For the record, areas that systems have historically rushed to eliminate - P.E., gifted/programs of rigor, music, art, foreign language - are not being considered for elimination," Schofield said in an e-mail. "We continue to believe these experiences are vital to a well-rounded educational experience."

The Boston public school system, for example, faces a major budget cut for the 2009-2010 school year, and fine arts, foreign language, physical education and health classes may be eliminated from some schools there. Although nothing is set in stone, music, drama and art students in Boston are using the social networking Web site Facebook to speak out against the cuts.

Brandi Lee, a junior at Flowery Branch High School, is one of a handful of Governor's Honor Program nominees for visual arts in the Hall County school system this year. She was stumped when asked where she might be today without her school's art program.

"It would be awful to lose due to a lack of funds," Lee said.

She said her involvement in the art program at Flowery Branch High School played an integral role in developing her identity as a student. Brandi turns out zany political cartoons, landscape paintings and abstract pieces for art teacher Regina Goodman's class, and she hopes to pursue a college degree in painting.

She said Goodman's art class helped her learn to "think outside the box" and it brings students of all backgrounds, including special needs students, together through a shared passion for art.

"We've got the jocks, we've got the geeks, we've got a kid who wears a tail and we've got photography students and pottery students," Lee said.

Goodman said she's thrilled to have a school board and superintendent who values the arts.

"You can't have a world of just scientists, authors or mathematicians, you need the arts to make it complete," she said.

An added bonus of her art class is that students must draw on art history, chemistry, math, language arts and current events to be successful artists, Goodman said. Before being effective in the photography darkroom, students must have a working knowledge of chemistry, for example.

"In an art class, you are using everything you've learned in other classes. In fact, my kids are always complaining they didn't come in here to do math," she said.

But Goodman said she understands why some school systems may cut arts programs - they're expensive. She said to supplement Flowery Branch High School's art fund, she asks students to pay a $20 to $30 art supply fee to participate in drawing, painting, pottery and photography classes.

"It's an easy cut to get more money quicker, but that's fatal," Goodman said. "There's always that kid who doesn't fit anywhere else but in the art department, and they're our future. They're going to keep our world from being barren."