While the arts struggle for a place in mainstream education, they are at the center of numerous educational programs in the community. Looking to what schools can learn from community example, this paper identifies three objections to prioritizing the arts in schools (value, measurement, and autonomy) and finds responses to each in community arts education. It asserts (1) that arts learning makes invaluable contributions to students' sense of individual potential and social responsibility; (2) that arts-based assessments provide a model for general education rather than an excuse for marginalizing the arts; and (3) that a reliance on the community (instead of schools) for arts education deprives too many children of the benefits of arts learning. (Contains 30 notes.)