The Great LAUSD Arts Heist

(Or: Where Did the Prop 28 Money Go?)

As a former teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), I’m not easily shocked. I’ve seen students turn in essays so wildly off-topic that I questioned whether they even read the assignment. I’ve witnessed teenagers argue, with absolute conviction, that Shakespeare would have written rap battles if he were alive today. I’ve even survived six years of morning staff meetings that somehow felt longer than my entire teaching career.

But when I heard LAUSD was being sued for allegedly misusing funds meant for arts education under Proposition 28, I had to pause—mostly to make sure I wasn’t experiencing some kind of teacher PTSD flashback. You mean to tell me that millions of dollars were earmarked to expand arts education, and instead, the district might have just... shuffled things around and called it a day? Well, color me shocked (and mildly unsurprised).

Let’s back up. Proposition 28 was supposed to be a win for the arts. It promised more funding, music classes, and drama programs—basically, more opportunities for kids to realize they might be the next Lin-Manuel Miranda or Yo-Yo Ma. When I was a kid, those programs were my saving grace. I wasn’t just a student; I was a child artist. Music and drama classes weren’t just fun extracurriculars—they taught me discipline, creativity, and how to pretend I wasn’t terrified during class presentations convincingly. The arts gave me confidence, a sense of identity, and the ability to monologue my way out of many a detention dramatically.

So, when a lawsuit alleges that LAUSD might have just used Prop 28 money to cover old expenses instead of hiring new art teachers, you can see why people are upset. This isn’t an arts expansion—this is an arts mirage. The funds were supposed to bring more artistic opportunities to students, not just keep existing programs on life support like a soap opera character in a coma.

On the other hand, I get it. Running a school district is a financial juggling act, and LAUSD is constantly broke in new and creative ways. There’s always a budget shortfall, a new crisis—one day, it’s teacher shortages; the next, it’s a sudden, district-wide emergency involving a suspicious lack of pencils. It’s entirely possible that the district saw Prop 28 as a lifeline to keep the arts programs it already had rather than truly expand them. From their perspective, they might argue, "Hey, keeping an arts teacher from being laid off is just as good as hiring a new one!"

But here’s the thing—if voters pass a law saying, "Hey, here’s some money to add more art programs," and then students still end up staring at the same old, barely-functioning xylophones from 1993, it’s a problem. The arts matter. And not just because they produce the next generation of tortured playwrights and indie musicians—though that’s a nice bonus—but because they teach creativity, confidence, and, most importantly, how to think outside the box (which is an especially valuable skill when trying to navigate LAUSD’s budget spreadsheets).

Now, LAUSD is facing a legal showdown over this, and honestly, I wish I could see it performed as a courtroom drama. Maybe this lawsuit will force the district to actually follow through on its promise of expanding arts education. Perhaps it’ll just lead to more bureaucratic red tape and a new round of budget excuses. But as someone who knows what it’s like to be a kid whose world was changed by music and drama classes, I hope they get this right.

Because at the end of the day, arts education isn’t just about funding—it’s about ensuring that the next generation has the chance to discover who they are and multiple ways to express themselves.