For decades, arts and music education in California has been dying a slow death in many schools, strangled by budget cuts amid an ongoing emphasis on core subjects like reading and math and test scores as the measure of student success.

But now, as educators search for new strategies to excite students about learning, especially during this grim pandemic, there is hope for their revival.

In contrast to several proposed ballot measures that would weaken public schools, former Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner is leading an effort to restore arts and music education to a more prominent place in the school curriculum.

With the backing of a growing number of artists and educators, Beutner wants to put an initiative on next November’s ballot that would require the state to spend between $800 million and $1 billion extra each year out of its general fund for arts and music education in the state.

That’s four times more than the total budget of the National Endowment for the Arts.

A huge windfall for the schools?

Hardly. It’s only the equivalent of about 1% of what the state currently on its schools required by Proposition 98, the initiative that dictates how much the state must spend on schools.

This week, the cause of arts and music education got a boost when Gov. Gavin Newsom included $1 billion for that purpose in his Expanded Learning Opportunities Program for the coming school year.

As welcome as that funding would be, it is one-time funding, so there is no assurance the programs would continue. Nor would they be integrated into the curriculum, but rather would be part of after-school or summer programs for K-6 students, and not accessible to all children.

That’s why the initiative Beutner is promoting will still be needed. In fact, it would simply help schools follow the spirit, if not the letter, of what they are already required to do by law.

Read the full article about arts education opportunities by Louis Freedberg at EdSource.