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#1: -  

 I graduated from Renaissance almost 30 years ago, in one of the first classes.  I believe in the value of a well-rounded education, and that should be enough.  But even leaving that aside - looking just at whether the school does what it's supposed to do in giving people opportunities - this is incredibly short-sighted.  College admissions is a VERY competitive process today.  We should be looking for well-rounded students, but more importantly they are looking for well-rounded students.  By taking those opportunities away, you are hurting their academic opportunities in the future.  "Frills" versus "academics" is a false choice if you're trying to get people into competitive colleges. 

I was not a great performer, but I sang at Renaissance, and it pushed me in a way that other courses didn't.  Physics was easy for me, but MSVA was hard.  That led me to sing in college, where I wound up running a large student organization.  That experience was something I talked about a lot in interviews coming out of law school.  And I still sing for fun in a community choir today.  This is the wrong thing to do on many levels.