Arts Org. Campaign Overview

 

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CALL TO ACTION: LAUSD Arts Education

Information for Arts Organizations/Providers

In 1999, the Los Angeles Unified School District took an historic leadership role in restoring standards-based arts education by adopting a ten-year plan and hiring key implementation staff. LAUSD invested millions of dollars into this initiative. Their investment focused on three areas: Classroom Instruction, Teacher Development and Community Partnerships.
    
Due to the budget crisis, LAUSD plans to eliminate 50% of Elementary Arts Teachers (dance, music, theatre and visual arts), or 173 of 345 teachers for the 2010-2011 school year, eliminating the remaining 50% in 2011-2012.

Eliminating these positions will decimate arts education in LAUSD, affecting students and teachers at the elementary, middle and high school levels.  Arts for LA and a coalition of organizational partners are coming together to urge the LAUSD School Board to support continued funding of the elementary arts teaching positions at their current level.

The Goal:
The majority of School Board Members (4 of 7) vote to maintain the integrity of the arts education program by funding elementary arts teachers at LAUSD at their current level.

Arts for LA's Strategy:

  • Serve as a hub for a coordinated advocacy effort 

  • Create online Information & Action Center

  • Mobilize LAUSD parents, students and local arts & cultural organizations to send a letter of support for arts Education to their school board member (goal: 100 letters to each School Board member)

  • Mobilize LAUSD teachers to urge their union, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), to voice support for arts teacher positions

  • Form coalition of executive arts leaders to develop and implement grasstops strategy and mobilze veteran civic and business leaders. 


Arts Organizations/Providers:


Arts for LA is building a strategic response to the crisis in partnership with a broad coalition of stakeholders, including 24th Street Theatre, Arts for All, Arts and Education Aid Council, The Boeing Company, California Alliance for Arts Education, The Herb Alpert Foundation, The LA Philharmonic, LAUSD Parents & Teachers for Arts Education and The Music Center.

Talking Points

  • The current budget to fund elementary arts education is already at bare minimal level, streamlined to provide arts instruction to students in all schools.  Eliminating arts education for more than 150,000 elementary, middle and high school students only provides a cost savings of 3% to the budget. This impact on student lives does not justify the proposed cost saving strategy.

  • LAUSD has invested ten years recruiting, training, and supporting these teachers.  As we saw after Proposition 13, once programs are lost, they can take decades to rebuild.

  • 85 percent of surveyed business executives indicated that they are currently having difficulty recruiting individuals who possess creative ability with demand for creative people expected to grow as firms pursue innovation.*

  • 93% of Americans consider the arts to be vital to providing a well-rounded education for children and a critical link to learning and success.**

  • Young people who participate in the arts are:

    • 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement

    • 3 times more likely to be elected to class office within their schools

    • 4 times more likely to participate in a math and science fair

    • 3 times more likely to win an award for school attendance

    • Participate in youth groups nearly four times as frequently

    • Read for pleasure nearly twice as often

    • Perform community service more than four times as often†

*Ready to Innovate, from The Conference Board, Americans for the Arts, and the American Association of School Administrators
**2005 Harris Poll
†Study by  Stanford University and Carnegie Foundation For the Advancement of Teaching; 1998