The cultivation of a community environment that attracts the creative worker requires technology, talent, and tolerance. The creative knowledge worker seeks a community not only with technological resources, often including a research university at its hub, but also the presence of arts, culture, and diversity. The Social Impact of the Arts study conducted by the School of Social Work of the University of Pennsylvania speaks to the character of communities that maintain this cultural diversity: it finds that communities rich in arts organizations are more diverse and more likely to remain so. The study further discloses that when cultural organizations are well funded, as in the Culture Builds Community initiative in Philadelphia, funded by the William Penn Foundation, community and arts organizations frequently seek links with the public school system. In the initiative sighted, over two hundred cultural and arts links were developed with the Philadelphia School District between 1997 and 2000. The quality of public school systems is strongly correlated with communities that attract creative workers. Statistics verify that cities with high "child-friendly" ratings are also leading creativity regions. This connection between public education and attracting knowledge workers to a community should not be overlooked. By taking a close look at the role of the arts within the public school system in Pennsylvania, this author contends that we may find ways to enhance the presence of arts, culture, and diversity within our communities, thereby creating an environment friendly to the creative class. Guided by the principles of historical and cultural context, balancing technique with choreographic experiences, and cocreating a definition of dance with students that allows for variability in aesthetics, Pennsylvania could become a leader in developing school-based dance programs that support the growth and retention of the creative class in our communities. (Contains 28 endnotes.)