Proposition 28 on November Ballot Would Guarantee Funding for Arts and Music Education in California

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Proposition 28, which will appear on the November ballot, would guarantee support for arts and music education in all public and charter schools from pre-school to 12th grade.

Derek Murchison, principal at Zamorano Fine Arts Academy in Bay Terraces, said art and music improve attendance.

“Every single day our students have this experience, and I think that’s why we have close to 900 students coming from everywhere,” said Murchison. “They really enjoy it and it’s the first thing they cut out of our curriculum.”

Proposition 28 would guarantee an ongoing source of funding for arts and music. The amount would be determined by taking a minimum of 1% of the amount guaranteed for education in the budget under Proposition 98 approved by voters in 1988. The money, though, would not come from the guaranteed education funding, but from the general fund. 

There is no organized opposition at this point, no written opposition on the ballot measure, but CEO and president of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, Haney Hong, said, “This is ballot box budgeting at the core of it, and ballot box budgeting is never a good idea.”

In general, Hong said, this way of funding means other state-funded programs may have to get cut.

“We have different issues that we as a state face at different times that the general fund pays for all of them,’' like parks and prisons and homeless programs, he said. “At the end of the day, you want to have enough flexibility and program design based on what's going on."

Russ Sperling, Director of the Visual and Performing Arts program for the San Diego Unified School District, said, “The Arts in our schools have been at the back of the bus for the last 40 years, ever since Proposition 13. This would put arts education in front of the bus.”

That money, he said, would go directly to schools and would be pushed out to every school district.

Under the measure, 80% of the money would have to be spent on hiring arts and music teachers and aides. The rest of the funding would pay for supporting arts and music, like training supplies, equipment, and field trips, with no more than 1% going to administration. There is also an accountability provision in the proposition to make sure the extra funding does not supplant money already there.

About 1 in 5 schools in the state has a full-time arts or music education teacher, according to proponents of the initiative. The measure would not only change that, but proponents say it would also reduce inequity. More money would be concentrated in low-income schools, where students may be less likely to get this kind of instruction.

"We are a creative economy in California, and if we don’t have an adequate arts education then we’re shortchanging our kids in California,” said Sperling. "We need to prepare our students for the careers we don’t even know exist and a lot of them are going to be in media, a lot of the arts in this creative economy. “

Hong said, “To be clear, we don't have an issue with arts and music education, but this isn't the way you decide how to resource it."

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