Thursday (1/7) on the Los Angeles Times blog Culture Monster, David Ng reports, “A proposal to slash arts teachers from elementary schools in the L.A. Unified School District has stoked community anger and fomented a grass-roots movement to fight the cuts. Facing a budgetary shortfall of nearly $470 million in the upcoming 2010-11 school year, LAUSD is considering reductions across the board that include cutting 50% of the district’s arts specialists who teach a specific cultural subject, like music or dance, in elementary schools. The move would result in an estimated savings of $14.9 million for the 2010-11 year. The proposal recommends eliminating the remaining arts specialists in the following school year, resulting in savings of another $14.9 million. … Arts for L.A. is leading a grass-roots effort to halt the proposed cuts. The group is organizing a letter-writing campaign in which they hope to send 700 letters to LAUSD board members. It is also seeking the support of major L.A. museums and performing arts institutions to adopt a resolution to send to the board.”
Posted January 11, 2010
