Budget cuts hurt Arts Education Plan
Holly Butcher | 4-2-2010 | Comments |
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Ten years after the Los Angeles Unified School district adopted the Arts Education Plan, it happened: more than 3 million elementary students received arts instruction that covered all four disciplines."LAUSD has been a pioneer in arts education and done great work moving toward K-12 sequential arts education for all students in the district," said Advocacy Manager of Arts For LA Tara Stafford.
With an estimated 355 specialized arts instructors, the district provided a music teacher in elementary schools at least once a week, as well as regular instruction in dance, theatre and the visual arts.
"We’ve grown every year," Judi Garratt, L.A. Unified theatre specialist, said. "Finally this year we met our goal to reach every elementary school."
But as the district faces a projected shortfall of $640 million, the program is seeing some changes in the 2010-2011 school year.
In June 2009, the school board passed a three-year budget that terminates 173 specialized arts educators’ positions after their contracts expire on June 30, 2010.
"Fifty percent of our elementary arts teachers have received notices that their services would no longer be needed in the arts branch next year," Garratt said. "It’s difficult to think how that could happen after our success. Everyone is being hurt."
By the 2011-2012 school year, the Arts Education Plan will be completely eliminated after an additional 50 percent reduction in staff.
Before it passed in 1999, arts training at the elementary school level was left in the hands of the multiple-subject teacher.
"Elementary arts education used to be a hit-and-miss proposition," former Los Angeles theatre and English teacher Jack Mitchell said. "It depended on whom your child had because some of the teachers had no background in the arts."
Now with the layoffs, things could regress to the way they were before the Arts Education Plan. And the fate of hundreds of teachers is unclear.
For those with multi-subject credentials, they could teach in an elementary classroom; those with single-subject credentials could transfer to a middle or high school. If no positions open, they would enter a pool and be sent to a school where they may serve as a floating substitute, among other positions.
"It has a trickle-down effect," Garratt said. "There are some high school music, art and English teachers who are not permanent and are being laid off to make room for our [specialized] teachers who are permanent."
Members of human resources met with arts teachers across all disciplines to answer questions about what their options are and what the curriculum would look like.
"In the elementary level, all schools will still be served but with half as many teachers," Garratt said. "This means schools will probably get two semesters of art per year - maybe one semester of dance, and the second semester visual arts. Then the next year would be the other two forms. They’ll probably only get one day a week."
These cuts have caught the attention of several arts advocates and parents across the district and state.
"In budget crisis times, the arts have to face the same circumstances as everyone else does, but conceptually you have stay strong in your commitment to art as essential as the other core subjects," Joe Landon, policy director at the California Alliance for Arts Education, said. "Arts education teaches skills that are essential for kids: creativity, innovation, discipline, collaboration. It’s a valuable pathway to learning that can't be eliminated."
In response to the layoffs, Arts For LA launched a letter-writing campaign to the board of education. Their goal was to get 700 letters in support of the arts, which they hit within 30 days.
"During that 30 days when we first launched the campaign, we learned the deficit was going to be quite a bit larger than we originally thought, making it even less likely we were going to win," Stafford said.
But they've set a new goal to reach 1,000 letters by April 1 in hopes to overturn the decision this May when the school board will revisit the issue.
"The board really wants to preserve this program," Stafford said. "I think it's easy for people to assume that the arts are always the first thing cut and the board members are making horrible decisions. But they really are in a terrible spot; the money is not there. But it's not over yet."
"I hope it turns around and our wonderful, nationally recognized program gets to remain," Garratt said. "That’s our dream, but it’s looking very shaky."
Photo Credit: Creative Commons
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