LAUSD Arts Ed Background

In 1999 the Los Angeles Unified School District took a historic leadership role in restoring standards based arts education by adopting a ten year plan and hiring key implementation staff. Well before the historic Arts and Music Block Grant, LAUSD invested millions of dollars to reinstate arts education for all students. This investment focused on three critical areas: Classroom Instruction, Teacher Development, and Community Partnerships.

Now due to the budget crisis, the Los Angeles Unified School District plans to eliminate 50% of the Elementary Arts Teachers (dance, music-general/vocal and instrumental, theatre and visual arts), or 173 of 345 teachers for the 2010-2011 school year, eliminating the remaining 50% in 2011-2012.

Eliminating these teacher positions will decimate arts education in LAUSD and affect students and teachers at all levels - elementary, middle and high.

We need to voice our support for the continued funding of the elementary arts teaching positions at their current level.

All the background info, talking points, materials, sample letters, and meeting dates that you need to voice your support for arts education can be found on this site.

Let's make sure that the LAUSD School Board hears from us that ALL children in LAUSD deserve a quality and complete education, and that arts education is a critical component of that.

LAUSD Arts Teachers created a petition that is still being circulated online and via hard copy at meetings and events.