The Honorable Gavin Newsom, Governor
State of California
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Governor Newsom,
We are grateful for your steady leadership during these unprecedented times. As a non-profit arts organization, Education Through Music-Los Angeles works to ensure children from the most vulnerable communities can receive equity and access through quality music education. We accomplish this through deep partnerships with local schools and districts and schools to fill in gaps for sequential, comprehensive music education.
Please save our schools from devastating budget cuts by adopting the legislators’ education budget proposal without further delay.
Studies show that music and the arts unequivocally play an integral part in the socio-emotional well-being, mental health, and overall development of children. We understand the need to balance the budget, but we urge you to use every option at your disposal instead of cutting public education. Now, more than ever, we need to invest in public education so that our children are taken care of, learning, and thriving.
Given the widespread, devastating, and disproportionate negative impact on students from the most vulnerable communities – including obstacles to learning, increased homelessness, food shortages and increased mental health challenges – we must step up to ensure that every child receives the resources in music and arts education as part of a complete education. Our students, families, communities and economy need to heal, and music and arts education continue to be an essential solution to give children life skills, hope, dignity for a vibrant future.
We ask that you:
- Please make no cuts to the public education budget and adopt the current Legislature budget AS IS.
- Provide school districts with as much flexibility as possible by not penalizing districts for lower ADA during the 2020-21 school year.
- Provide flexibility in instructional minutes and days.
- Allow flexibility of Supplemental, Concentration, and Lottery Funding Spending.
Maya, a music student says, “In trying times, supporting one another and attempting to understand one another is vital to moving forward. Music is one of the most simple and beautiful ways to do this.”
Thank you for helping our schools and avoid irreversible damaging effects of devastating budget cuts by adopting the legislators’ education budget proposal.
Sincerely,
Victoria Lanier
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