Supporters of the arts gathered Wednesday in Sacramento for Arts Advocacy Day in order to lobby lawmakers on a range of issues.
Educators are drawing attention to problems with the implementation of Proposition 28, which was supposed to help schools hire more art teachers.
Abe Flores, deputy director of policy and programs for the nonprofit Create CA, said some districts are doing something of a “bait and switch.”
“Some schools are using the new Prop 28 funding to replace their existing investments in arts education,” Flores pointed out. “Their students are not seeing a net increase in their arts teachers or arts programming.”
The Los Angeles Unified School District is currently being sued over the issue by local parents and by the author of Proposition 28. Create CA also wants the state to designate the visual and performing arts as a qualified shortage area, so people studying to become an arts education teachers have access to more financial aid. They’d like to see lawmakers pass Assembly Bill 1128, which supports grants for student teachers.
Julie Baker, CEO of the advocacy group California for the Arts, said they will be asking lawmakers to restore funding to a number of different programs which have been zeroed out in the past few years.
“California is number one in the United States for arts jobs,” Baker noted. “But we’re actually 35th in the United States in per capita funding to our state arts agency, which is the California Arts Council.”
California for the Arts is also promoting a bill to make it easier for cities to hire muralists by removing a requirement they be licensed painting contractors.
