There’s a strong body of research that suggests arts education can boost everything from test scores to social-emotional learning, but when budgets get tight, the arts are often the first thing on the chopping block.
In California though, that’s about to change following the passage of Proposition 28, which guarantees a new annual funding stream for arts education equal to 1% of the state’s general fund. In 2023, that’s about $1 billion for schools to hire teachers in the arts and fund arts education initiatives.
Join EdSource reporter Karen D’Souza on Thursday, Dec. 14, at 12:30 p.m. for a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session. D’Souza will answer your questions about the rollout of Proposition 28 and how California’s groundbreaking arts education initiative compares with how states across the country fund and implement arts education programs. Click here to ask a question.
EdSource readers are encouraged to submit their questions during the online event.
An AMA, which stands for “Ask Me Anything” is a crowdsourced interview. The interviewee begins the process by starting a post describing who they are and what they do. Then commenters from across the internet leave questions and can vote on other questions according to which they would like to see answered.
The interviewee can go through and reply to the questions they find interesting and easily see those questions the internet is dying to have the answer to. Because the internet is asking the questions, they’re going to be a mix of serious and lighthearted, and interviewees will end up sharing all sorts of things you won’t find in a normal interview.
A teacher shows 12th grade students how to construct a small animal house.
Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education
Ina Gutierrez lives for the opera. She has a master’s degree in classical voice as well as a decade of singing and performance under her belt.
She tapped into that lifelong passion to teach music and choir to fourth and fifth graders for two years in Kern County using emergency credentials, and she loved every minute of it but had to stop teaching once that credential ran out.
She now often works as an adjunct professor at CSU Bakersfield, where she teaches “Music in the Classroom,” a class that shows teachers how to share music with children. Gutierrez feels frustrated that she is qualified to show teachers how to teach but can’t teach actual students. She attempted to get a Career Technical Education credential for music but was told she couldn’t use it for elementary school teaching. That broke her heart.
“I would love to be teaching children music,” said Gutierrez, a 38-year-old mother of two who lives in Bakersfield. “Art is so important for children to experience, especially music. It is unique because it simultaneously builds independence and community. In a world where children are playing less outside and addicted to screens, having music in schools shouldn’t be a luxury. It’s vital in building a more compassionate, caring and happy society.”
While many arts education advocates are championing the use of the CTE credential as the state struggles to attract new staff to teach the arts in the wake of Proposition 28, the state’s historic arts mandate, there’s a big hitch for those who want to teach elementary students. It was originally designed for use at the secondary level because it is employment-oriented.
Basically, unless the class has a clear career-based element, like a fifth grade broadcasting class, candidates like Gutierrez might get rejected. Many districts will only greenlight CTE holders to teach middle school, junior high and high school. That’s why some arts education advocates are pushing for reform.
“The CTC language, unfortunately, is from the Eisenhower era when boys took shop, girls took home economics and nobody thought about ‘jobs’ or ‘careers’ until spring of their senior year in high school,” says Austin Beutner, the former superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District, who authored Proposition 28. “In today’s world, all of this is career-related, and it starts in elementary school.”
Given the state’s teacher shortage and the heightened need for art educators in light of Proposition 28, some are losing patience with the bureaucratic hoops aspiring arts teachers must jump through.
“It is frustrating to see good, qualified individuals being rejected from teaching due to complex bureaucracy,” said Gutierrez’s husband, Greg, who comes from a long line of teachers. “In order for California to fix the teacher shortage, this problem needs to be addressed. We need a process that is easy for potential teachers to work through.”
Bob Woods-LaDue, Gutierrez’s brother-in-law, has hit the same obstacle. He was told he had to get his music class reclassified as a technical class to be eligible to use the CTE credential.
“I can’t help but wonder how many teachers are in an uphill battle that don’t know how to advocate for themselves in the credentialing process, and getting different answers from different people,” Greg said. “It doesn’t seem like an encouraging environment based on his experience thus far and my wife’s similar experience.”
Beutner, for one, is pushing to have the system streamlined so that there are fewer roadblocks for teachers who are dedicated to bringing the arts into elementary classrooms as well as secondary ones.
“Change is hard, but it has to happen,” he said. “California schools will need to hire about 15,000 additional arts teachers to fully implement Prop. 28. Half of the teachers will be needed in elementary schools. There are nowhere near enough traditionally credentialed arts teachers to fill that need.”
Some experts warn that teaching elementary requires a different skill set than secondary. That’s one drawback in widening CTE credential usage, they say.
“I am not sure about broadening it,” said Eric Engdahl, professor emeritus at CSU East Bay and past president of the California Council on Teacher Education. “While it could be a stopgap to fill the arts teaching shortage, are the people teaching it with substantial industry experience appropriate to be teaching at an elementary level given the developmental differences in learning?”
Some working artists may need to bone up on educational best practices before entering the classroom, and Buetner suggests professional development be provided.
“A concern some may have is whether a CTE teacher, even with their content mastery, is ready to be in a classroom with third graders,” Beutner said. “A sensible approach would be to build in some guardrails, maybe a CTE teacher in elementary needs to work alongside a grade level teacher for a semester while participating in a certain set of CTE professional development courses.”
For many, teaching the arts is a dream gig, a way to enrich lives as well as stimulate higher levels of critical thinking in a generation hard hit by pandemic-related learning loss.
“Music is an amazing way to bring that joy to students, invite creativity to the classroom and build connections between students as well as teacher to student,” said Gutierrez. “It is in an environment like this that students can and will learn better. I love music for music’s sake, but music is a great tool to incorporate in teaching language arts, math, science and history.”
While the CTE program has long been associated with trades and vocations such as auto repair, plumbing, and culinary arts, it can also be a viable pathway to becoming an arts educator. Other routes include being a traditionally credentialed arts teacher or a classified staff member, although that role commands lower pay.
One of the key CTE pathways lets artists with considerable experience in their field, from dance and digital arts to jazz, use that expertise in the classroom. They must have three years of work experience directly related to each industry sector named on the credential and meet other administrative requirements.
“The CTE credential allows people who have 1,000 hours of experience in the field to come into teaching, bring all that experience, that wisdom that they’ve got,” said Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the California State Board of Education, during a recent arts ed conference at UCLA. “We hope many, many artists will come in and secure the credential.”
One big upside to the CTE credential is that, unlike teaching artists who need a credentialed teacher to remain in the classroom while they teach, CTE teachers can fly solo. That frees the classroom teacher up, creating time to work one-on-one with students, email parents back and meet with colleagues.
“When CTE teachers are teaching a course, then the regular classroom teacher can be doing other things,” said Darling-Hammond. “Our staff are stretched very thin. So we want to use this as a win-win for students and for staff in all of our schools.”
The greater accessibility of the CTE route, its fewer barriers to entry, may also invite a more diverse range of teachers than more traditional pathways, experts say.
“Let’s roll up our sleeves and bring the CTE standards into the 21st century,” said Beutner. “The alternative is millions of students in elementary schools across California will not have the chance to participate in arts and music.”
Preschool children learn to express themselves through painting.
Credit: Courtesy of Daniel Mendoza
Amid a national reckoning over learning loss and chronic absenteeism deepened by the pandemic, arts education may be one of the keys to boosting children’s engagement in school, research suggests. Like sports, the arts can spark the kind of excitement that makes students, and their families, look forward to coming to school.
Devotees of the arts have long argued that art transforms us, but in recent years, neuroscience has shown just how beneficial arts education can be for children. Music, for instance, can buttress the architecture of the growing brain. Theater classes teach empathy, history and literacy all by putting on a show. Creativity, storytelling and the spirit of play ignite learning, effortlessly building the memory and concentration that academic rigor demands.
Low-income children often see the biggest gains. That’s why making arts education accessible to all is the thrust of Proposition 28, the state’s historic arts mandate, which voters approved in 2022. Spearheaded by former Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner, the initiative began doling out money to schools last year.
However, the groundbreaking program has run into several significant hurdles during its rollout, including a deep teacher shortage, widespread confusion about spending rules and pointed disagreements about how to interpret the law. Arts advocates are scrutinizing district arts budgets, and some are pushing for a state audit of the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has been accused of misspending funds in an ongoing lawsuit filed by families and Beutner.
What do students learn from the arts?
The lessons of arts education are vast, from creativity to cognitive boosts. That’s why it has always been part of a classical education. From the arts, children learn focus, discipline and teamwork in addition to how to sharpen their own sense of voice and ingenuity, vital skills in a future likely dominated by artificial intelligence (AI). Originality is essentially a human gift, one that machines can only imitate.
While each school has been tapped to choose the kind of arts education that best suits its community, the California Department of Education (CDE) is leading the implementation of the initiative. CDE has provided guidance in FAQs and webinars to help districts navigate the rules. Questions can be emailed to Prop28@cde.ca.gov.
How much money do schools get?
Funding, which gets funneled through the district, is variable depending on the size of the school and the number of Title 1, low-income students there. The money is ongoing, and school districts have up to three years to spend each allocation. Disbursements began to land in February 2024.
What is the money supposed to pay for?
Arts disciplines are broadly defined, from dance to digital arts, and schools are encouraged to tailor the program to the shifting needs of students over time. However, most of the funding is intended to pay for arts teachers. In general, at least 80% of the funds are for school staffers, certified or classified employees, to provide arts education. Up to 20% is for arts education support, including training, supplies, materials and arts partnerships. No more than 1% of total funds may go to administrative costs.
Is there a waiver from the spending rules?
The CDE may provide a waiver to school districts for “good cause” if the 80/20 rule cannot be followed. Waiver requests must include a problem statement, framing the waiver as a proposed solution to the problem. Reasons for a waiver may include a need to purchase costly supplies or equipment, such as buying musical instruments for an orchestra, or the need to contract with an arts partner due to an inability to hire qualified staff. Thus far, 2.4% of school districts have requested a waiver for 2024-25 spending, according to the CDE, down from 8.2% for 2023-24.
Can you pay for existing arts programs with the new money?
No. Prop. 28 money must “supplement” and not “supplant” funding for arts education. For example, if you spent $1 million on arts education in the 2022-23 school year, you were expected to spend $1 million plus your Prop. 28 money in the 2023-24 school year (the first year Prop. 28 funds were available).
However, allegations of supplanting funds have arisen across the state as arts teachers watch new Prop. 28 funds being used to pay for existing programs. There are also disagreements on whether the litmus test on spending applies to districts as a whole or school by school.
What are the main issues in the Los Angeles Unified lawsuit?
The core issue is paying for old programs with new money. Beutner, the author of the law, maintains that each individual school should offer more arts than before, while Los Angeles Unified officials have argued that spending is measured at the district level. Student plaintiffs and Beutner have filed a lawsuit against LAUSD, alleging misuse of funds. State education officials have avoided taking sides in the matter, but CDE auditing rules suggest that compliance is determined at the district level. Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles, has called for a state audit of LAUSD’s use of Prop. 28 funds.
What are the biggest challenges facing Prop. 28?
The challenges of this rollout are myriad. Thorny issues include finding staff amid a teacher shortage, interpreting complicated rules and finding the time and space to hold extra classes. Schools without a Visual and Performing Arts coordinator often struggle with planning, experts say, and many have put off spending the money due to a lack of clarity on the spending rules and a lack of knowledge about the arts in general. While many school districts have reported they did not use the funds in the first year of Prop. 28 funding, according to some estimates, the window to tap into the funds is three years. Next year will be crunch time on assessing how comprehensively California schools are able to expand arts education.
What should parents know?
Ask your principal how the Prop. 28 money is being spent and share your ideas on what artistic disciplines would best fit your community. Remember that arts education is a very broad landscape, from dance to digital arts. If there has been no increased access to arts education, that could be a red flag.
Are adults shaped by childhood exposure to arts education?
Early music training may impart a lifelong neuroplasticity that helps keep the brain sharp even as it ages. A 65-year-old musician has the neural activity of a 25-year-old non-musician, experts say. A 65-year-old who played music as a child but hasn’t touched an instrument in ages has neural responses faster than a peer who never played music.
Faced with an ongoing teacher shortage, many California arts education advocates have been championing the use of career technical education (CTE) to attract new arts teachers to help fulfill the state’s historic arts mandate. The sticking point has been that the credential has only been applied to secondary classrooms, leaving elementary students out.
That may change if Gov. Gavin Newsom’s initial 2024-25 state budget becomes law. This proposal, subject to change in May, when the numbers are revised in response to shifting economic conditions and policy issues, calls for the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to create a new Elementary Arts and Music Education pathway for career technical education teachers. This expansion would allow more working artists to share their expertise with California students, a move many arts advocates praise.
“Newsom is paving the way for a more vibrant and well-rounded educational experience, fostering creativity and skill development at every stage,” said Allison Gamlen, visual and performing arts coordinator for the San Mateo County Office of Education. “Empowering CTE teachers with the ability to bring their expertise to elementary classrooms is a positive step that will enrich the artistic learning experience for young students.”
Expanding this credential into elementary schools might help recruit working artists, from musicians to animators, who are passionate about their craft into the school system, which is struggling to find staff in the wake of the pandemic.
“It’s really exciting,” said Austin Beutner, the former superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District, who authored Proposition 28. He said the governor’s direction to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing about expanding the career technical education pathways for arts educators to include elementary schools “will help all 6 million children in public schools across California benefit from the additional funding Prop. 28 provides for arts education.”
While many arts advocates are excited, some also caution patience, given the exhaustive nature of the bureaucratic process. The budget may well undergo significant changes during the May revision, for example.
“Teaching artists will now have another pathway into employment at schools to meet the needs of Prop. 28,” said Eric Engdahl, professor emeritus at CSU East Bay and past president of the California Council on Teacher Education. But “knowing how state bureaucracies work and the laws that govern their actions, I don’t think this will produce any new teachers for at least two years, quite possibly more.”
One key concern has been whether artists have sufficient knowledge of best practices for younger children. Some are concerned that teaching third graders requires a different skill set than eighth graders, for instance.
“Elementary has different foundational considerations, including meeting young students’ developmental and reading needs,” said Letty Kraus, director of the California county superintendents’ statewide arts initiative. “The developmental piece is an important one.”
Kraus believes the state should solve the staffing problem by widening the existing arts educator pipeline.
“Rather than push CTE down into elementary, I think it is important to look at our existing credentialing system and consider how to increase statewide access to credentialing pathways, including virtual,” she said, “and also how to remove financial barriers and support credential candidates while they complete their student teaching.”
Some arts education experts warn that teaching a subject is not the same as practicing it.
“I am concerned about having CTE teachers teaching a core subject like arts, math and science —mastering a subject doesn’t mean you can teach it,” said Abe Flores, deputy director of policy and programs at Create CA, an advocacy group. “I know how to read, but it doesn’t mean I can adequately teach a student to read.”
Others say that the new credential should require adequate training in child development as well as pedagogical concerns.
“Since it is now in the CTC’s court, they will have to create a pathway that ensures preparedness,” said Engdahl. “A CTE credential requires classes in addition to industry experience, and the CTC should be looking at those classes closely.”
Engdahl has confidence that aspiring arts educators will apply due diligence to their professional development.
“As for teacher preparedness, I am not really too concerned. When I was a teaching artist, and having worked with teaching artists for many years, I have noticed that their classroom preparedness is generally excellent.”
However, classrooms today are not what they were before the pandemic, and many children are coping with mental health issues as well as learning loss. That raises the stakes for all new teachers, Engdahl notes, not just arts educators.
“If there is an area of concern, it is in the changes in schools after Covid,” said Engdahl. “Students and schools are different now, and it is more challenging helping students to heal and learn.”
This urgency to adapt to shifting school needs is one reason Beutner believes change is called for.
“You have to meet the students where they are,” said Beutner. “You also have to meet the aspiring teachers where they are.”
Students from Sierra Foothill Charter School use butterfly nets to gently catch, observe and release riparian species on Stookey Preserve.
Credit: Courtesy of Mariposa Arts Council
Clay Muwin River doesn’t need a studio to make art. A teaching artist for the Mariposa County Unified School District, River creates pieces of art amid the butterflies and woodpeckers on the banks of Mariposa Creek, sharing the magic of art in nature with TK-6 students. It’s a practice deeply rooted in the Indigenous culture that courses through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in the heart of Gold Country, not far from Yosemite.
“Our cultural arts are deeply tied to our natural environment,” said River, a member of the Northeastern Passamaquoddy and Mi’kmaq nations but also an artist and storyteller grounded in the traditions of the Southern Sierra Miwuk. “We can’t actually practice our cultural arts without the environment being healthy.”
From weaving and quilting to pottery and mural painting, River taps into a native tradition in which art and nature have always been inextricably linked. The impulse to create is fueled by the beauty of the environment, the golden rolling foothills and green pastures.
“It’s one and the same,” said River. “I live and breathe this work. I didn’t choose it. It chose me.”
The mission of this art and environmental education camp, a collaboration between Mariposa County Unified School District (MCUSD), the Mariposa Arts Council and the Sierra Foothill Conservancy, is to give children a sense of connection to the natural landscape, how their lives are entwined with the health of the watershed, through a deeper understanding of art and ecology. This is arts education in the great outdoors, a limitless space where children’s imaginations can take flight.
A student from El Portal Elementary School makes observations and journals in Yosemite Valley, near Wahhoga Village.Credit: Courtesy of Mariposa Arts Council
“We are really focused on place-based education, being that we do have such a rich natural context around us and we want to make sure that our students are able to tap into that,” said Cara Goger, executive director of the Mariposa County Arts Council. “There are so many arts education opportunities that draw from the natural ecosystems and the cultural significance of Mariposa Creek.”
Cultural enrichment is woven together with scientific practice in an immersive art project. The students learn to harvest native plants, like elderberries, for food and medicine, while they are steeped in the richness of indigenous culture and the majesty of wildlife.
“I tell them to listen to their first teacher, the earth is the first teacher,” River said. “What is the ground telling you? What are the trees telling you? What are the animals telling you?”
A seamless integration of art, science and Indigenous culture, these day camps teach kids on many different levels at once, evoking all of their senses to engage their minds. That’s one reason River says challenging classroom behavior, which has spiked in the aftermath of the pandemic, seems to vanish in the open air.
“Being outside changes the children drastically for the better,” River said. “Behavior changes. It’s really different to sit in a chair inside a building for eight hours than to be outside looking at nature, rolling around in the grass, being able to take your shoes off and put your feet in the dirt. Children need that.”
Clay Muwin River tells a story to the children at Mariposa Creek.Credit: Courtesy of Mariposa Arts Council
A sense of place is the key here. Mariposa Creek is the unifying theme, providing the plants that are blended together to make dyes for watercolor painting, the willow stems for basket-weaving, and the clay for pottery-making. The creek is the star of the show, the source of both the art and the science that unfolds.
While some may associate the arts with densely populated, urban hubs, this art education program celebrates the universality of the artistic impulse. You don’t need a bustling downtown to find a thriving arts scene.
“So often we think of art in the built environment, the “house” art found in theaters and galleries,” said Letty Kraus, director of the California County Superintendents’ statewide arts initiative. “I appreciate the way this project nurtures civic engagement and acknowledges and connects the assets in the county that include the natural environment and the knowledge and culture of the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation.”
The ongoing restoration of the creek, as a way to preserve the splendors of the foothills, is also at the heart of the project. The children learn about eliminating invasive species as part of fire mitigation efforts and studying the water to measure the health of the ecosystem.
“It’s a simple idea,” said River. “I’m showing them that water is life. If you look in the water and you see no life, if you don’t see any sort of microorganisms in there, no little tadpoles or fish, then the water is not well.”
All of these ecological lessons build off the connection the children already have with their environment. The creek emerges as an art studio and a laboratory rolled into one. The students also sometimes go on field trips to nearby Stookey Preserve and Yosemite’s Wahhoga Village.
“The kids are already out here playing in the creek, exploring their landscape,” said Goger. “When we build a curriculum that focuses on something they’re already familiar with, they bring their own knowledge and understanding to that. Hopefully, afterwards, their investment in that landscape is even deeper. One of the things we really try to drill down on with the restoration of the parkway is instilling the idea of stewardship of the land.”
Families have responded enthusiastically to the program, which launched in 2022 and has thus far been paid for with Expanded Learning Opportunities Program (ELOP) money, but may be expanded through Proposition 28 funding in the future. Administrators hope to build ways to connect the camp with in-classroom study and create an after-school program going forward.
“All my time in education, I have never seen such overwhelmingly positive parent surveys. It’s been fantastic,” said Lydia Lower, assistant superintendent for educational services for MCUSD. “Parents are seeing that their kids are engaged in really healthy, productive activities. And they’re learning not only from an academic standpoint but from a living standpoint. What does it feel like to express yourself? What does it feel like to be part of a collective? What does it feel like to be working for the betterment of your community?”
Ambitious goals are part of what elevates this arts camp into an experience that may fundamentally shift how children see the world. Certainly, the marriage of sustainability and survival, the way humans and the environment perish or flourish together, runs through all the art lessons River teaches.
“Place is all we have,” said River. “Not to keep going back to an indigenous view, but home has never been a building. That’s why tribes stay. Not just because that was the reserved parcel that was given. It’s the land that is home. We’re teaching children that if you take care of this space, it’ll be here forever for you. This can be forever home.”
Kindergartners paint a mural at Ellen Ochoa Learning Center in LAUSD.
Credit: Courtesy of Nightflare
Marcos Hernandez lived in a garage for years when he first came to this country from El Salvador as a refugee at age 11. He left his small pueblo of San Gerardo alone, fleeing a country ravaged by war, seeking a better life.
“After you’ve been hungry, after you’ve been bombed and you have survived so many times, you build up this belief that I must be here for a purpose,” said Hernandez, a soft-spoken man with an understated manner that belies his heroic life story. “There must be a reason. And you just try to follow that. I am here to serve my community.”
That’s why he’s devoted his career to lifting the lives of children in Cudahy, a tiny, densely populated, and tightly knit city near the Los Angeles River and the 710 freeway, where roughly a third of the population lives below the poverty line. Hernandez went on to become the principal of a school, the Ellen Ochoa Learning Center, just a few blocks from the garage he once called home.
“This is the poorest city west of the Mississippi River,” says Hernandez, who is candid about his struggles. “I failed most of my classes my first year because I worked the graveyard shift. Almost everyone on my block belonged to a gang. Getting in and out of that community was hard. There was always somebody waiting to jump me because I didn’t want to join the gang.”
Marcos Hernandez, principal, leading an arts education project at Ellen Ochoa Learning Center in LAUSD.Courtesy Marcos Hernandez
Poverty is often generational. Hernandez understands the lingering trauma it leaves behind. He will never forget living in that garage, only being allowed to enter the main house and use the bathroom at certain times of day.
“It was rough, but after a while, you train your body,” he says, matter-of-factly.
Overcoming adversity with grace is in his bones. He doesn’t dwell on his own hardships, which include battling cancer, but he certainly understands the power of resilience. When he works with families in his district, he knows how hard they fight to keep their heads above water. Most of the parents at Ellen Ochoa did not finish high school, but all want better for their children, many of whom are English language learners.
“There are patterns of oppression that our students experience,” says Hernandez, a father of three who radiates patience and calm. “It’s this perpetual cycle where they just don’t have the opportunities that kids in other communities have. I want to raise that bar. The thing that I have always said, that I try to live by every day, is whatever kids in Malibu, kids in Palos Verdes, have access to, I want kids here to have.”
That’s where arts education comes in. He sees the arts as a path to equity, a way to help children heal from the scars left by grinding poverty. That’s the vision of Turnaround Arts: California, an arts education program founded by famed architect Frank Gehry and education advocate Malissa Shriver that transforms the state’s lowest-performing schools through the arts.
“We’re talking about human beings, not data points and test scores,” said Shriver. “People have thought the arts were like a cherry on top. And instead, we’re actually the undergirding of it all. We’re not the extra, we’re the foundation.”
Affiliated with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washngton, D.C., the project has reached 35,000 students in 33 elementary and middle schools across the state in the last 10 years, and hopes are high that Proposition 28, the state’s new arts education mandate, will help fuel expansion.
“It’s a huge driver to ensure more equity so that we’re not relying on parent fundraising to decide who gets the arts in schools,” said Turnaround’s executive director, Barbara Palley. “One thing that we’re excited about is it would open the path for more schools that are interested in Turnaround Arts.”
Hernandez believes the children who are least likely to be exposed to the arts are those who need it the most. Most schools that participate in this program see gains in both reading and math, a finding that tracks with exhaustive evidence that the arts boost academic achievement as well as spark engagement.
“My specialty is supporting students who are struggling,” he says. “They need a second chance or a third chance to get them going. Because that was me. This education thing wasn’t in my mind at all. It wasn’t on my radar. I needed money.”
His childhood was often grueling, working in the fields at the age of 10, becoming a dishwasher at 12, but he has never wavered in his love of people, his desire to make a difference in the world. When his father questioned why he’d give up a solid job as a restaurant manager to go to college, he stuck to his guns.
“You should have seen his face. He was kind of happy for me, but he couldn’t understand why you’d leave a good job,” he recalls. “It clicked for me at that age that the more that we could push ourselves, the more we could have an impact on future generations.”
A mural painted by students at Ellen Ochoa Learning Center in LAUSD.Credit: Courtesy of Nightflare
That’s the level of dedication he has brought to his work at Ellen Ochoa, and he plans to bring the same tenacity to his new assignment as principal of nearby International Studies Learning Center at Legacy High School. While he says it will be hard to walk away from Ellen Ochoa, where he has watched the arts bolster academics and curb misbehavior, he feels certain the work will continue.
“It’s not about me as an individual,” he says with characteristic humility. “It’s a collective project; it belongs to the community. They own it.”
Covid hit the district hard. The school quickly became a community hub, providing thousands of meals, Covid tests and vaccinations for those in need.
Hernandez has used the arts as a tool to help rebuild a sense of community, an appreciation of togetherness, coming out of the pandemic. The students have formed an orchestra, they’ve painted murals, and they’ve even designed buildings with the renowned Gehry.
“This is their land. This is their community,” says Hernandez. “When you walk by with your family and you look at the beautiful murals and you say, you know what? I did that. That creates incredible pride for our students.”
His secret weapon is empathy. He treats everyone like family, taking time to get to know children as people as well as students.
A mural painted by kindergarten students at Ellen Ochoa Learning Center in LAUSD.Credit: Courtesy of Nightflare
“Marcos cares for every family member and every child like his own,” said Alison Yoshimoto-Towery, executive director of the UC/CSU Collaborative for Neuroscience, Diversity and Learning. “He’s probably done over 500 home visits to learn about the hopes and dreams of his families, and to build trust with the community.”
Giving back is a way of life for Hernandez. He’s an activist as well as an educator. He often rides his bike to work from Long Beach, and along the way, he gives necessities to those living on the bike path by the river.
“He’s a humble-servant type of leader,” says Shriver. “He’s not climbing over people to get to the next position. … There’s no ego there. He treats everybody with a lot of dignity. That’s why he’s such a tremendous leader and also just effective.”
Education isn’t a job for him — it’s a calling. He works nights, weekends, and even during vacations to engage his students in activities that stimulate hearts as well as minds, from running marathons to painting murals.
“That’s my passion,” he says simply. “That’s my purpose, my purpose is to serve.”
A mixed class of students, some with special needs, learn music in the Coronado Unified School District.
Credit: Jane Meredith Adams/EdSource
In response to California’s long-standing teacher shortage, the state has been investing in recruitment efforts such as internships, apprenticeships and residencies, all designed to attract new teachers to the profession. Now, in light of the thousands of jobs being generated by Proposition 28, many arts education advocates are aspiring to lean into the same strategies, looking to create more alternate pathways into arts education at the TK-12 level..
Teacher residencies are one such route. Part of the “earn-and-learn” model, these positions offer on-the-job training as well as mentorship that often appeals to candidates who may not be able to afford to enter a conventional teacher-preparation program. That may help diversify the ranks.
Merryl Goldberg, a veteran music and arts professor at Cal State San Marcos, is helping develop a residency program that would meet the needs of her arts education students, most of whom are the first in their families to go to college. Without paid learning opportunities, becoming an arts teacher can be a hard path to walk, she says, because it means giving up much-needed income for years.
“This can be a game changer for many students,” said Goldberg, who has plans to partner with several North County San Diego schools in the next school year. “Many of our students have to work while in school to support themselves and contribute to their family. … Imagine that their work is their school, how much more time and energy they can put into becoming an amazing teacher.”
Jacquelyn Ollison, program director of the California Teacher Residency Lab, points out that residency programs can help boost diversity, recruiting teachers who reflect the students they serve. Residents often teach alongside a mentor teacher for a year of clinical training even as they complete required coursework in a teacher preparation program.
“From an equity perspective, residency programs are just so amazing,” Ollison said. “You have funding to diversify the workforce, to recruit and retain candidates of color, who reflect what our student population is. Then, when you think about art and who has access to amazing art teachers and who doesn’t, this is a way to ensure that we’re having these art teachers come in really prepared, reflecting local diversity and kids getting the opportunity to benefit from it.”
Eric Engdahl, professor emeritus at CSU East Bay and past president of the California Council on Teacher Education, is among those working on plans for how best to extend these programs into the arts ed space, but he cautions that institutional change is rarely swift.
“I think it will be a very important venue to expand Prop. 28 and get teachers in the pipeline, but it is complicated, as are all things in education,” said Engdahl, who spearheaded an online credential program in theater and dance at Cal State East Bay in 2021, making it the first CSU to offer those credentials amid the implementation of Proposition 28, “and may take time to make any real impact.”
However, a sense of urgency is part of this vision for nurturing a generation of teachers who better connect with the students they teach in this deeply diverse state.
“This impacts not only the students by giving them the time to really engage with learning, but benefits their future students as their time is really focused on their studies to become a reflective, thoughtful and engaged teacher,” Goldberg said. “The population of the students we reach, no doubt, is the very population of students who have less opportunities and privileges. The students we are targeting mirror the population of the students they will go on to educate.”
Research has long shown that the benefits of the arts are rich and nuanced, from boosting social-emotional learning to supporting literacy and numeracy. And yet, until Proposition 28, it’s been the least privileged students, the ones most hurt by school closures and learning loss during the pandemic, who have also been the least likely to have access to the arts.
“We know that the arts are powerful for students and self-expression, and they have tremendous benefits at school,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. “Arts is something that everyone should have, regardless of your neighborhood or your ZIP code. And Prop. 28 guarantees that with equity, all students have access to arts.”
In an era of chronic absenteeism, student disengagement and a youth mental health crisis, many are hopeful that arts education may be a key way to bring magic back into the classroom at a time when many children have zoned out.
“From my perspective, we are all dealing with trauma at some level in our schools today,” said Peggy Burt, a statewide arts education consultant based in Los Angeles. “The pandemic created this new era of ‘learning loss’ that is driving both teachers and students to make up for lost time. As students hurry to catch up, they are experiencing a sense of overwhelm and disconnection. The arts, coupled with social-emotional learning, can be a path back to integration and belonging. … The arts create a culture and environment where students can thrive.”
The arts can be a powerful way to let students explore their darker feelings and turn those emotions into something beautiful.
“While so many of our students are struggling with anxiety and depression, theater, in my opinion, is one of the best forms of therapy,” said Catherine Borek, AP English literature and drama teacher at Dominguez High School in the Compton Unified School District. “We expose them to good stress, and we help them strengthen their wings so that they can fly. That is the power of the arts.”
Maira Rodriguez, a teacher at Ferndale Elementary in Humboldt County, participates in professional learning.
Credit: Joanna Galicha / the Humboldt County Office of Education
California voters demonstrated their commitment to arts education in our schools with the passage of Proposition 28, which brings unprecedented resources for teaching the arts to every school in California. The state also adopted a forward-looking arts standards and curriculum framework and reinstated theater and dance credentials.
But truly realizing the potential of that commitment requires arts teachers who are fully prepared to teach the arts.
Unfortunately, California currently faces a statewide shortage of credentialed and classified PK-12 educators, especially multiple-subject and single-subject arts credentialed educators. The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing’s most recent data show a decrease in new arts teachers. Currently, only 3% of all credentialed teachers hold a single-subject credential in the arts. In the 2021-22 school year, California had about 7,500 teachers with clear arts credentials. This works out to be one teacher with a single-subject arts credential for every 785 California public school students.
upcoming roundtable | march 21
Can arts education help transform California schools?
In an era of chronic absenteeism and dismal test scores, can the arts help bring the joy of learning back to a generation bruised by the pandemic?
Join EdSource on March 21 at 3 p.m. for a behind-the-scenes look at how arts education transforms learning in California classrooms as schools begin to implement Prop. 28.
The thousands of new teachers needed to expand access to arts education will take years to recruit and prepare. With this persistent statewide hiring challenge, we urge immediate attention from state policymakers and district leaders to provide high-quality differentiated professional learning for arts educators already in classrooms and preparation programs. Professional learning is a critical component of California’s arts education infrastructure. Teachers are not a monolith and have a wide range of professional learning needs and interests. So we need tailored professional learning for a wide variety of arts educators, including:
Intern teachers. While data from the Commission on Teacher Credentialing shows that the arts have fewer intern teachers than the other single-subject areas on average, internships can offer a shorter path to the classroom. Since intern teachers are at the start of their teaching careers, key factors for keeping them in the classroom include mentoring, interaction with professional learning communities (PLCs), and networks of other arts teachers.
Teachers, especially those with out-of-state preparation. These teachers will continue to need professional development in the recently adopted state framework and standards. The California Arts Education Framework for Public Schools, adopted in 2020, did not have a robust statewide rollout due to the pandemic and is an essential resource for new and established teachers. Funding professional learning in this area will benefit teachers trained in- and out-of-state.
“Ineffective” credentials. According to California Department of Education data, arts students in California are more likely to be taught by an educator with an “out-of-field” or “ineffective” credential than students in other subject areas. While institutions prepare new arts educators, professional learning must be widely available, easily accessed and responsive to the many needs of educators who are already teaching but who may be classified by the State Board of Education as “ineffective” due to having out-of-field credentials and permits. Ideally, all educators charged with teaching the arts should be credentialed in the arts discipline they teach. In the meantime, professional learning can help build capacity and increase effectiveness to better support and equip teachers to teach arts content.
Elementary teachers. The distribution of teachers with single-subject arts credentials is not evenly spread across grade levels. More than 75% of credentialed arts teachers work in sixth through 12th grades. As a result, teachers with multiple-subject credentials are a vital arts education provider to elementary students. Besides being required in the California education code, arts education in elementary schools is an essential foundation that enables students, by middle and high school, to be successful in arts courses that meet the A-G admission requirements for University of California and California State University or in a career technical arts, media and entertainment pathway to prepare for a career.
Multiple-subject teachers. They make up the largest group of credentialed educators in California, and research shows that multiple-subject teachers who integrate the arts in their teaching are reinvigorated and more engaged. Incorporating more preparation in the arts for multiple-subject credentialed teachers, through summer intensives, and job-embedded training builds teacher knowledge, skills and confidence in the arts while supporting arts learning across all grade levels.
To meet such diverse needs, California needs support from the legislators, policymakers, higher education institutions, and PK-12 professional learning providers. The professional learning infrastructure exists, and there are many avenues across the state for high-quality professional learning. Prioritizing funding toward high-quality professional learning helps advance the intent of Proposition 28.
We must nurture and strengthen the entire system. Policymakers must advocate for a robust statewide funding effort similar to past models such as health education, history-social science, ethnic studies, mathematics, science, and computer science. Building capacity through professional learning for those already in classrooms and in teacher preparation programs should be funded and prioritized. There are many organizations across the state already engaged in effective professional learning, and these efforts are necessary to build our human capacity to fully realize the promise of Proposition 28.
•••
Letty Kraus is director of the California County Superintendents Arts Initiative, which works through the 58 county offices of education to support high quality, sequential, standards-based arts education for all students in California.
Patti Saraniero is principal of Moxie Research, a research and evaluation firm serving arts, culture, science and educational organizations.
The opinions in this commentary are those of the authors. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
The catastrophic Camp Fire roared through Northern California’s Butte County in 2018, charring the landscape, taking 86 lives and destroying countless homes and habitats in the town of Paradise.
The deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history at the time, the fire spread at the rate of 80 football fields a minute at its peak, scorching the hearts and minds of the people who live there, especially the children.
That’s why the Butte County Office of Education sent trauma-informed arts educators into the schools, to help students cope with their fear, grief and loss. Buildings can be repaired far more quickly than the volatile emotions of children scarred by tragedy. Long after the flames died down, the heightened sense of fragility that often follows trauma lingered.
upcoming roundtable | march 21
Can arts education help transform California schools?
In an era of chronic absenteeism and dismal test scores, can the arts help bring the joy of learning back to a generation bruised by the pandemic?
Join EdSource for a behind-the-scenes look at how arts education transforms learning in California classrooms as schools begin to implement Prop. 28.
We’ll discuss the aspirations and challenges of this groundbreaking statewide initiative, which sets aside roughly $1 billion a year for arts education in TK-12.
“The people displaced from Paradise were suffering from acute trauma, running for their lives, losing their houses and being displaced,” said Jennifer Spangler, arts education coordinator at Butte County Office of Education. “This county has been at the nexus of a lot of impactful traumas, so it makes sense that we would want to create something that directly addresses it.
Even now, years after the conflagration, many residents are still healing from the aftermath. For example, the county has weathered huge demographic shifts, including spikes in homelessness, in the wake of the fire, which have unsettled the community. All of that came on the heels of the 2017 Oroville dam evacuations and longstanding issues of poverty, drug addiction and unemployment, compounding the sense of trauma.
“Butte County already had the highest adverse childhood experiences (ACES) scores in the state,” said Spangler. “We’re economically depressed, with high numbers of foster kids and unstable family lives and drugs. I think the fire was just another layer, and then Covid was another layer on top of that.”
Chris Murphy is a teaching artist who has worked with children in Paradise public schools as well as those at the Juvenile Hall School. He believes that theater can be a kind of restorative practice, helping students heal from their wounds in a safe space.
“Arts education is so effective in working with students impacted by trauma because the creative process operates on an instinctual level,” said Murphy, an actor best known for voicing the role of Murray in the “Sly Cooper” video game franchise for Sony’s PlayStation. “All arts are basically a way to tell a story and, as human beings, we are hard-wired to engage in storytelling as both participant and observer. A bond of mutual respect and trust develops among the group as they observe each other’s performances and make each other laugh. Over time, the environment takes on a more relaxed and safe quality.”
A drumming class at Palermo Middle School.Credit: Butte County Office of Education
Another teaching artist, Kathy Naas, specializes in teaching drumming as part of a social-emotional learning curriculum that helps students find redemption in the visceral call-and-response rhythms of the drum circle.
“Trauma is powerful and is connected to something that occurred in the past,” said Naas, a drummer who is currently performing with a samba group as well as a Congolese group based in Chico. “Drumming occurs in the present moment and engages the brain so much that fear, pain and sadness cannot break through.”
To be sure, the use of trauma-informed arts ed techniques goes beyond natural disasters. Many arts advocates believe that these techniques can help children cope with myriad stressors.
“Now more than ever, these cycles of traumatic events, they just keep coming,” said Spangler, who modeled the Butte program after a similar one in Sonoma County in the wake of the devastating 2017 Tubbs Fire.
Children who have experienced trauma may experience negative effects in many aspects of their lives, experts warn. They may struggle socially in school, get lower grades, and be suspended or expelled. They may even become involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice system.
“An individual who has been impacted by trauma, especially ongoing toxic stressors like a home environment with addiction, neglect or abuse, develops a brain chemistry that is detrimental to cognitive function … essentially locking the brain in a fight-flight-freeze cycle,” Murphy said. “With this understanding of what the trauma-affected student is going through, I use theater arts to disrupt the cycle.”
It should also be noted that delayed reactions are par for the course when dealing with post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), experts say. Some children will show their distress readily, while others may try to hide their struggle.
Coming out of the pandemic, the healing power of the arts has been cast into wide relief as public health officials seek tools to grapple with the youth mental health crisis.
“Music can, in a matter of seconds, make me feel better,” said U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy during an arts summit organized by the White House Domestic Policy Council and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). “I’ve prescribed a lot of medicines as a doctor over the years. There are few I’ve seen that have that kind of extraordinary, instantaneous effect.”
A trauma-informed arts ed class involving theater in Butte County. Credit: Butte County Office of Education
Drumming can help build empathy, Naas says, because it allows for self-expression but also encourages a sense of ensemble, listening to others and taking turns.
“Drumming is a powerful activity that creates community,” said Naas. “What I notice about drumming with children is that students become excited, motivated, and fully engaged at the very start. They reach for the rhythms and begin exploring the drums right away.”
Arts and music can nurture a visceral feeling of belonging that can help combat the isolation that often follows a tragic event, experts say. This may also provide some relief for those grappling with the aftershocks of the pandemic.
“The truth is we are all dealing with hardships associated with the pandemic and with learning loss, and we know that the arts, social-emotional learning and engagement can create a healing environment,” said Peggy Burt, a statewide arts education consultant based in Los Angeles. “Children need to heal to develop community, develop a sense of belonging and a sense of readiness so that they can learn.”
The families of Butte county know that in their bones. Trauma can fester long after the emergency has passed, after the headlines and the hoopla. Turning tragedy into art may be one way to heal.
“I’ve seen it over and over in these classrooms, the kids quiet down, they’re calm, they’re focused,” said Spangler. “You can see the profound impact the arts have on the kids every day.”
The rollout of Proposition 28, which gives $1 billion for arts education every year, has caused confusion among districts throughout California as many look to expand opportunities available to students.
Despite the hurdles, bringing arts education into schools in an equitable way is possible with the right team, according to panelists at EdSource’s March 21 Roundtable discussion, “Raising the curtain on Prop 28: Can arts education help transform California schools?”
“We have the funding to do great things,” said Marcos Hernandez, the principal of the International Studies Learning Center at Legacy High School in Los Angeles Unified. “But we all have to be committed, and we have to listen to the students.”
‘The glue that holds a good education together’
When University of California Irvine student and panelist Matthew Garcia-Ramirez was in middle school, his 30-minute art classes changed everything.
As a high school student grappling with personal losses during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Garcia-Ramirez got into the California State Summer School for the Arts, where he received a piece of advice that stuck with him: “You can remember you can learn all the fancy words you need for poetry, but what you have is something special. It’s your voice.”
That opportunity led Garcia-Ramirez to receiving a scholarship for college — and he isn’t alone in experiencing the transformative impacts of an arts education.
Several panelists discussed the importance of arts education — particularly in a post-pandemic world — and its ability to keep students engaged.
According to Letty Kraus, director of the California County Superintendents Statewide Arts Initiative, chronic absenteeism throughout the state, which has surged by 30% since 2018, can be improved when students have access to arts education. The exposure is associated with improved attendance.
“It’s a 21st century learning skill. It’s so necessary, and I just think that a lot of people think in an old-fashioned way about arts education,” said Malissa Feruzzi Shriver, co-founder of Turnaround Arts: California, a nonprofit that works in elementary and middle schools across the state, who emphasized the importance of seeing arts as “applied creativity.”
“It’s a child with a crayon or a paintbrush, or what if my child doesn’t want to be a musician? It’s much broader and more impactful than that.”
Implementing Proposition 28
While Proposition 28 was designed to give twice as much money to kids who are in lower income communities, the law’s implementation so far deserves a C-minus, said former LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner.
Under the law, Proposition 28 funds are specifically designed to supplement, and not supplant, existing funding, Beutner said.
“Some school districts either don’t wish to recognize the plain language of the law or are willfully violating the law,” Beutner said. “And they’re using money to backfill existing programs.”
Beutner said that the California Department of Education, which has been tasked with overseeing Proposition 28 funds, has been “relatively circumspect on this.” He called for the state auditor to get more involved.
“This is the first full year, and it’s going to set a precedent,” Beutner said. “If school districts are allowed to willfully just flat out violate the law, what’s going to happen next year or the year after?”
Supporting arts programs
While some districts are confused about how to implement Proposition 28, others are working to build arts programs from the ground up.
Schools that have “disinvested in the arts over the years don’t have that expertise in-house, and they need help,” said Jessica Mele, the interim executive director of Create CA, which advocates for high quality arts education for all students. “They’re struggling to know what kind of decisions to make when it comes to building an arts education program from scratch. That’s where we see some inequities.”
From developing strategic plans to incorporating professional development opportunities for teaching artists seeking more stability, panelists emphasized that partnerships are critical — as is the need to cultivate a demand from students and families.
“Education is here for us, the students. It’s here to serve us, and we have a voice at the table. So please use that voice because that is very important,” Garcia-Ramirez said.
“Use the public comment at your school district’s meetings; ask your principal questions; there is a seat for you at the table, and if there isn’t, please make one for yourself.”
