Illustration by Semi Seyedhosseini, Photo Editor.
Choosing a creative future starts with knowing it’s an option at all. A chance to try something new may become a reason to keep creating.
In 2022, California passed Proposition 28, which allocated supplemental funding to K-12 schools statewide to expand arts education.
In Orange County K-12 schools, Proposition 28 is expanding those early opportunities. Districts are giving students the opportunity to explore creative interests before deciding where to take them next, whether that is college or beyond.
Across California, arts education was provided with nearly $1 billion and given three years to spend it. Orange County has reportedly spent $67 million, which is about 99% of the first year's funding from the proposition, according to the California Department of Education.
Kyle Holmes, the director of the statewide arts initiative, assists with guiding how these initiatives can best serve and support the community and students.
“What we do through the Arts Initiative is use our County Offices of Education to help connect everybody, and our Arts Leads are able to be the connective tissue in those conversations,” said Holmes.
Through the implementation of the extra funds within schools, more students are provided opportunities to discover arts like theatre tech, music, digital design and everything in between.
This funding has provided a number of jobs in arts education that are waiting to be filled. For college creatives across Orange County under the impression the job market is dead, think again.
“One of the requirements for Prop 28 money is that it goes to hiring, but we can’t fill the arts educators jobs because there are not enough qualified candidates,” Holmes said. “So there are thousands of job openings right now to teach in the arts that we can’t fill.”
Shining a light on creative outlets in schools may allow students to pursue newfound passions as a career.
When students are given a chance they never had before to learn how to play a musical instrument, to design or even create a film, they could discover a reason to continue it in their futures.
“I think so often we hear that there are no jobs in the arts and that dissuades young people from continuing to study the arts, so this helps debunk that narrative,” Holmes said. “What's more important than pursuing careers in the arts is that all of our students get access to the arts just for art's sake.”
For students who eventually choose to study the arts in college, that access can begin long before applications. The connection this funding could strengthen is between an early opportunity to experiment and the decision to keep creating.
“I feel like when I was younger the only art forms offered at school were drawing or painting,” said Chapman senior communication studies major and graphic design minor Claire Santo. “I did not think there was anything beyond that.”
Santo declared the graphic design minor her sophomore year. She noted that if she had been exposed to more variety of arts in the past, she could have had more time to become more versed in her interest.
“I never knew of the term graphic design before college,” said Santo. “I wish I had more support or outlets at the time to have been able to pursue it earlier.”
When she began taking classes for graphic design at Chapman, Santo realized some people had earlier access to this art and already knew how to navigate the courses.
“I had a passion for design and I had the basics,” Santo said. “But I didn't have as much prior practice as others had.”
School districts around Orange County are already implementing these new opportunities, including developing film programs, expanding theatre technology offerings and adding digital media tools to visual arts instruction.
For students in high school still discovering their interests, these offerings can help create more entry points into the arts before they face a decision about what to major in for college or even to begin work postgrad.
Before students can decide whether to pursue the arts or not, they need a chance to discover them. That is the opportunity the funds for programs are intended to provide. It does not have to be a predetermined career, but a start to an art.