Sacramento, April 22, 2026, Only 11% of California schools are using Proposition 28 arts funding the way voters intended, according to a commentary by Michelle Castillo, a music teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
That number is damning. Castillo, writing for CalMatters, argues that California’s school districts are systematically denying music and arts education to Black, Latino, immigrant, and low-income students while wealthier communities continue to have access.
Proposition 28 passed in 2022 with strong voter support specifically to address funding gaps in arts education. The measure required 80% of its money to go toward hiring new arts teachers to start new programs, with the remaining 20% covering supplies. It was designed as supplemental funding, not a replacement for existing commitments. Most districts have treated it as neither.
The lawsuit angle is hard to ignore. Los Angeles Unified School District is currently facing legal action brought by students, parents, and former Superintendent Austin Beutner over how the district has handled Proposition 28 funds. LAUSD tried to get the case dismissed. A judge denied that request.
Castillo’s argument doesn’t stop at LAUSD. She points to a 2021 study conducted on behalf of the NAMM Foundation, the charitable arm of the National Association of Music Merchants, which found that providing quality music education in large districts costs about $251 per student. That’s roughly 2% of a district’s per-student expenditure of $13,214. The money isn’t the obstacle. It never was.
The roots of this problem go back to the No Child Left Behind Act, signed in 2002, which tied federal school funding partly to standardized test scores. Districts responded by cutting what wasn’t being tested. Music went first. The irony, which Castillo leans into hard, is that the same policy shift has coincided with declining English and math scores across the board.
Studies show music education raises test scores. It improves attendance. Students who receive quality music instruction are less likely to drop out. Research links music study to measurable improvements in mental health, physical health, and behavior, with effects that carry into adulthood. Science has been building this case for decades.
None of that research has reversed the trend.
What makes Castillo’s piece sharp is where she goes next. She doesn’t frame this as bureaucratic neglect or simple budget mismanagement. She names it: Black students, Latino students, immigrant kids, and low-income families are the ones being cut off from these programs, while schools in wealthier districts maintain their music departments. That disparity doesn’t happen by accident.
The pattern is worth examining on its own terms. California voters passed Proposition 28 because they saw a failure and decided to fix it directly, bypassing the legislature. They raised money specifically for this purpose. And still, 89% of schools aren’t doing what the measure required. That’s not a funding problem. It’s a compliance and accountability problem, and right now there’s no clear enforcement mechanism forcing districts to get in line.
It also isn’t a teacher pipeline problem. Castillo describes herself as a working music educator in the state’s largest school district. Qualified, certified music teachers exist. Districts just aren’t hiring them with the money that was set aside to do exactly that.
The LAUSD lawsuit, if it moves forward, could set a significant precedent for how Proposition 28 funds get used statewide. Beutner, who led the district before the current administration, joining students and parents to sue over arts funding is not a typical coalition. The judge’s decision to let the case proceed keeps pressure on the district at a moment when Sacramento lawmakers are already watching school finance fights with close attention.
California spends more than $13,000 per student each year. The cost of adding real music programming to that equation, according to the NAMM Foundation data, is about $251. Districts that claim they can’t afford it are making a choice, not reporting a constraint. Castillo makes that case plainly, and the math backs her up.