Thursday (6/3) on the Los Angeles Times blog Culture Monster, Mike Boehm reports, “California arts advocates suffered their third and worst legislative shutout in less than two months Wednesday as the Assembly voted 76 to 0 in favor of a bill that would allow more students to skip arts instruction entirely during their high school years. To earn a diploma now, students have to take at least one yearlong course in arts or a foreign language. If the bill, AB 2446, passes the state Senate and is signed into law by the governor, students, starting in the 2011-12 school year, will be able to substitute a “career technical education” course for arts or a language. … By allowing students to take a technical course rather than arts or a language, backers say, teens aiming for immediate full-time jobs rather than college will be better prepared for them.” Laurie Schell, executive director of the California Alliance for Arts Education, said that part of an effort to lobby against the change “will be to present data showing that “there’s a tremendous overlap” in skills learned in arts classes and those required for technical fields that students not on a college track might enter.”
Posted June 4, 2010
