A 2022 California law provided funds for arts and music education in state public schools. A new policy brief by SRI details what it will take to prepare and hire the necessary teachers.
In November 2022, California voters enacted Proposition 28, committing approximately $1 billion annually to support arts and music education in the state’s public schools beginning with the 2023-24 school year. Prop 28, also called the California Arts and Music in Schools Act, passed by a wide margin. It also presented the state with a challenge: Public schools would need to hire an unprecedented number of new arts teachers.
Given the rate at which California certifies new arts teachers, some observers suspected that schools might struggle to find enough teachers.
The scope of that challenge is now more clear thanks to a new policy brief titled “What the California Arts and Music in Schools Act Means for the Arts Teacher Workforce,” written by Katrina Woodworth, director of the Center for Education Research and Innovation at SRI. The brief was prepared with financial backing from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
What Prop 28 means for teacher hiring
The SRI brief compiles data exploring the impact the new annual funding stream will have on the demand for new art teachers. “Meeting the demand will take a concerted, state-wide, and multi-pronged approach,” Woodworth said.
“A billion dollars buys thousands of arts teachers,” Woodworth added. “Preparing that many teachers quickly is really difficult. The Hewlett Foundation asked us to come up with an estimate of how many teachers were needed as a first step towards developing a plan for how to get there.” (SRI previously conducted two broader studies with support from the Hewlett Foundation on the status of arts education in California; the study published in 2007 provided some of the evidence used to make the case for Prop 28.)
Quantifying the challenge ahead
SRI calculated that schools would have to hire more than 5,400 new teachers before the start of the 2025-26 school year to meet Prop 28’s mandate across disciplines including dance, music, theater, and visual arts.
To estimate how many arts teacher positions Prop 28 will ultimately support, the SRI team closely examined the average teacher compensation (salary plus benefits) for each of California’s 58 counties, and also estimated how many new teachers each county might hire based on their actual 2023 Arts and Music in Schools (AMS) funding allocation. The team combined the county-level estimates to generate regional and statewide estimates of the number of new positions administrators needed to fill. Estimates ranged from 83 in the state’s less-populated northeastern region to more than 1,250 new arts teachers in Los Angeles County alone.
“It is clear that the state will need to accelerate the rate at which we are preparing arts teachers.” — Katrina Woodworth
All told, by August 2025, the brief estimates that the state will need to increase its pool of arts teachers nearly 50% above the 2022-23 baseline, from 11,100 to 16,500.
Picking up the pace
“It is clear that the state will need to accelerate the rate at which we are preparing arts teachers,” Woodworth observed. But, she noted, filling these jobs with qualified teachers will require quick action and a multi-faceted approach.
The policy brief identifies 63 institutions in California that prepare arts education teachers; presumably, the pressure to grow the teacher pipeline will fall on those schools, many of which are in the California State University (CSU) system.
The brief points to an example from the CSU system that exemplifies one path forward: a new program at CSU San Marcos in San Diego County called the CSUSM Art Credential Pathway. According to the brief, “This program supports undergraduate arts majors to prepare for a supplementary subject matter authorization in the arts (dance, music, theater, and visual arts) as they pursue their multiple subject teaching credential, allowing these new teachers to teach arts courses in grades K to 8.” These undergraduate teachers-to-be will be supported by cooperating teachers with arts backgrounds, teaching artist mentors from the community, and a Residency Grant from the Department of Education Foundation (a significant stipend for their participation).
In addition to examining the role that higher ed and teacher preparation programs can play, the brief includes recommendations for school districts, county offices of education, and arts and education funders.
“The AMS Act presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for those who have long understood the power of arts education to roll up their sleeves to ensure creativity and artistic expression are well-supported elements of every student’s education,” wrote Hewlett Foundation leaders in a reflection about the brief. “SRI’s study is one example of how funders and researchers can aid the field in better identifying and addressing the opportunities and challenges of implementing this landmark measure.”
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