AFT’s Weingarten on Misuse of Arts and Music Funding for California Schools

WASHINGTON—AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement responding to the rampant misallocation of voter-approved funding for arts and music in the state of California:

“Arts and music help kids build agency for themselves and excitement about their futures. There is no substitute for the creative expression that participating in arts and music provides; it is a key to helping every kid thrive. That’s why we have a duty and an obligation to make art and music programs a permanent reality, not just a rhetorical wish, in public schools across the nation.

“Recognizing this, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 28 in 2022 to make sure every school across the state gave students the opportunity to participate in arts and music at school. This groundbreaking law dedicates funding for every public school to add additional arts teachers and aides, without raising taxes. 

“Sadly, some school districts, Los Angeles Unified in particular, are willfully violating the law by spending the new Prop. 28 funds on existing programs rather than on hiring additional arts teachers and aides to expand arts programs. If school districts are allowed to violate the law without consequence, their actions will make a mockery of the voters’ clear wishes.

“Before Prop. 28, barely 1 in 5 public schools in California had a full-time arts or music teacher. Prop. 28 provides the funding to address this issue, but only if school districts follow the law. That’s why we’re joining the fight to make sure Prop. 28 is properly implemented in all 1,037 school districts across California. A diverse coalition of teachers; school staff; artists; entrepreneurs; and business, labor and community arts organizations, along with the parents of children in public schools, came together to create Prop. 28 and help ensure it passed. The law mandates more arts and music in every school. More means more, and we aim to make certain that is exactly what happens. 

“The AFT stands with Austin Beutner, the author of Prop. 28, and the ACLU—along with our sisters and brothers from United Teachers Los Angeles; the California Federation of Teachers; the California Teachers Association; the Oakland Education Association; the Service Employees International Union, Local 99; Teamsters, Local 572; and the California School Employees Association, Los Angeles Chapter 500—in calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, and legislative leaders in California to make sure students are provided with the opportunity to participate in arts and music at school that the voters promised them.”