SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 16 (Our California Times) — California schools are beginning to return unspent money from a voter-approved arts program, even as many districts face a shortage of qualified arts teachers and uncertainty about which expenses the funds may cover.
The money comes from Proposition 28, approved by California voters in 2022. The law sets aside about $1 billion each year for arts education in public elementary, middle and high schools.
The unused funds must be returned to the state after three years. The California Department of Education has not announced how much money schools returned after the first three-year spending period, or which districts returned it.
For students and teachers, the issue is not simply whether money is available. It is whether schools can hire arts educators, build new programs and meet the law’s spending rules before the deadline.
How the program works
Prop. 28 money is distributed mainly according to student enrollment. Schools with larger populations of low-income students receive additional funding under the law’s formula.
At least 80% of each school’s allocation must be used for additional arts staff or educators. The remaining money may be used for supplies, equipment and other arts-related expenses.
The law also says the money must supplement existing arts programs, rather than replace funding schools were already using. That provision is known as the “supplement, not supplant” rule.
In practice, that means a district generally cannot use Prop. 28 money simply to pay for an arts position or program that was already in its budget. The goal is to expand arts access for students.
The California Department of Education collects annual spending reports and oversees compliance. The department plans to redistribute unspent money to schools that are using their Prop. 28 funds correctly, based on those reports.
Why schools have struggled to spend it
One challenge is staffing. Schools may receive money for new arts instruction but have difficulty finding qualified teachers in music, dance, theater or visual arts.
Another challenge is uncertainty over the rules. District officials have raised questions about how the funds can be used, including whether money can be shared among schools or used to support teachers who work at more than one campus.
El Dorado County Superintendent of Schools Ed Manansala said local educators want to avoid making mistakes with the new funding.
“We need clarity and confidence that we’re doing this the right way,” Manansala said. He also said El Dorado County has a long history of supporting the arts and wants to ensure the program is carried out properly.
The issue has affected schools and courses at the local level. At Union Mine High School in El Dorado County, a dance teacher described concerns that dance classes could be eliminated even as Prop. 28 funding was becoming available. The law’s requirement that the money create an expansion, rather than replace existing support, can make those decisions more complicated.
Data compiled by Create CA, a nonprofit that supported Proposition 28, indicated that dozens—and possibly hundreds—of schools spent none of their allocations. The statewide number of schools returning money and the dollar amount involved have not been made public by the California Department of Education.
What happens to returned money?
The law’s three-year deadline is intended to prevent funds from sitting unused indefinitely. Once money is returned, the state can direct it to schools that have demonstrated that they are spending Prop. 28 allocations within the law’s requirements.
That process may shift resources from schools that could not hire or plan quickly to schools with established arts programs and staffing capacity. It also means that students’ access to new arts classes may depend partly on whether their school can meet the law’s staffing and reporting rules.
Labor leaders and arts advocates have raised a separate concern: that some districts may use the money for existing staff, programs or supplies. A coalition of nearly 100 arts organizations urged state officials to protect the supplement-not-supplant requirement. Labor leaders also called for districts to provide documentation showing that they were complying with the law.
Former Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner criticized a proposed change to the program, saying it would “gut” Proposition 28.
Assembly Bill 2440, authored by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, was reported as having passed the Assembly unanimously in May 2026. The proposal would allow districts to pool funds assigned to individual schools and permit districts that cannot meet the 80% educator-spending rule to seek a waiver from the California Department of Education.
The supplied legislative information does not establish whether the bill became law or whether it took effect. For now, schools remain responsible for following the existing Prop. 28 rules, including the three-year deadline, the staffing requirement and the ban on replacing existing arts funding.