Prop. 28 is a sensible ballot initiative that will fund music education across the state, particularly in disadvantaged schools — without raising taxes.

Arts classes introduce children to culture and offer a path to careers in architecture and design, film, television and technology. The Press Democrat recommends a yes vote on Proposition 28.

Students from low-income backgrounds who receive an arts education are less likely to drop out of school, more likely to receive a degree and more inclined to pursue a career…We join [supporters] in recommending a yes vote on Proposition 28.

This ballot measure would create a dedicated funding stream for art and music education not by raising taxes, but by requiring the state to match 1 percent of California’s prekindergarten-through-12th-grade school dollars from the general fund.

All kids deserve the quality arts education that California promises but has failed to deliver at many of its public schools. Voters have a measure before them to start living up to those ideals and they should support it.

[Students] deserve to have an enriched education that might otherwise be available only to students whose parents can pay for private instruction in the arts.

Prop 28 is an opportunity to enrich the lives of 6 million public school students.

Just as math teaches [students] two plus two and how to get along in life, the arts teach them how to have empathy, how to be better people, how to have confidence and interact.” 

[Prop 28] gives voters the opportunity to bring music to the classroom. Let’s lift up our civic voices and sing out a hit for California’s students.

Only 1 in 5 public schools in California have a full-time arts or music program. Our kids deserve better.” -San Diego arts and music teachers Russ Sperling and Jeanne Christensen