Photo: Aurelia Ventura / Impremedia / Real America News
Although Austin Beutner retired as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD ) Last semester, your work and interest in improving children’s education did not stop.
Joined a coalition of educators, businessmen and art and music leaders, is presenting a ballot proposal that seeks to promote arts and music education in public schools from grades kindergarten to 12 statewide without raising taxes.
If the measure is approved, intended for the general election of November 2022, will provide additional funding for schools beyond Proposition 98, and is specifically designed to protect existing funds for public education.
Beutner said in an interview with Real America News that when he was superintendent he saw first-hand how necessary music and art are for children.
” it plays an important role in the lives of children and helps them connect with other students, in their social emotion, they feel better about themselves, they learn to be entrepreneurs and express themselves, ”said Beutner. “Unfortunately, funding for music and the arts has been cut for so many years.”
Beutner asserted that at this time that state budget is in record surplus need to make sure kids are a priority and get some money back in classrooms.
Experts indicate that California’s spending on arts and music education has lagged significantly behind other states; and, the 96% of secondary schools and the 72% of high schools in California do not provide arts and music instruction.
Access to arts education is lower in schools with high poverty rates. The cause of the lack of art education offerings in California, despite the state being the arts and entertainment capital of the world, is directly related to inadequate and unstable funding for such programs.
Beutner said all LAUSD staff agreed on the importance of music and the arts, but the state did not provide funding enough to pay the teaching assistants or to obtain the necessary instruments and materials.
Without increasing taxes
Beutner said that people in California already pay enough taxes but at the time the state has had levels funding record, the largest budget in history, with additional funds provided to the federal government for covid relief – 19 This measure comes at a good time.
The former superintendent added that in November of 2020 did a survey of potential voters and the 81% supported a measure that supports art and music.
The measure has a broad base of leaders in the arts, music and business sectors throughout California.
“We have initial support from leaders in the arts, entertainment and music industries from Dr. Dre and will.i .am to actress Issa Rae and Michael Govan, president of LACMA, Pedro Noguera, dean of the Rossier School of Education at USC and Tony Hernández, president of the California Community Foundation.
Grammy Award-winning musician, producer and tech entrepreneur will.i.am said in a statement that thanks to arts and music education classes, students can learn crafts and computer skills found in careers in fields such as animation, graphic design, video games, video production, and audio engineering. “Arts and music education also teaches collaboration and creative thinking which are essential in life and in virtually all jobs,” said will.i.am.
Andre “Dr. Dre ”Young, producer, artist and entrepreneur, asserted that he supports that children have more access to musical and artistic education.
“ Creativity saved my life. I want to do that for every kid in California, ”said Dr. Dre, who recently opened a high school in South Los Angeles.
“We have the opportunity to do something truly transformative that hasn’t been done before. That is the objective of this effort ”, he asserted.
The measure provides for a new financing method dedicated to arts and music education equivalent to 1% of the annual investment of grades kindergarten to 12, generating approximately $ 800 million in funds.