California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 12

Introduced by Assembly Member Ian Calderon

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bloom, Brown, Gomez, Levine, Waldron, and Wilk)

February 5, 2013

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 12—Relative to arts education.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

ACR 12, as introduced, Ian Calderon. Arts Education Month: March 2013.

This measure would declare March 2013 as Arts Education Month, would encourage all elected officials to participate with their educational communities in celebrating the arts, and would urge all residents to become interested in and give full support to quality school arts programs for children and youth.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, Arts education, which includes dance, music,
theatre, and the visual arts, is an essential and integral part of basic
education for all pupils in prekindergarten, kindergarten, and grades
1 to 12, inclusive; and

WHEREAS, The arts are crucial to achieving a state educational
policy that is devoted to the teaching of basic academic skills and
lifelong learning capacities with the goal of truly preparing all
children for success after high school regardless of gender, age,
economic status, physical ability, or learning ability; and

WHEREAS, A systematic, substantive, and sequential visual
and performing arts curriculum addresses and develops ways of
thinking, questioning, expression, and learning that complement
learning in other core subjects, but that is unique in what it has to
offer; and

WHEREAS, Pupils benefit from arts learning in the areas of
cultural understanding, readiness for learning and creative thinking,
cognitive outcomes, emotional intelligence and expression, social
interaction and collaboration, and preparation for the workplace
and lifelong learning; and

WHEREAS, Arts education in California is mandated for pupils
in grades 1 to 12, inclusive, by Sections 51210 and 51220 of the
Education Code to provide that the adopted course of study shall
include instruction in “[v]isual and performing arts, including
instruction in the subjects of dance, music, theatre, and visual arts,
aimed at the development of aesthetic appreciation and the skills
of creative expression”; and

WHEREAS, The arts are recognized as part of a quality
education, and the University of California and the California State
University have instituted a policy that includes visual and
performing arts as college preparatory subjects for all high school
pupils wishing to enter California’s institutions of higher education;
and

WHEREAS, Many national and state professional arts education
associations hold celebrations in the month of March, giving
California schools a unique opportunity to focus on the value of
the arts for all pupils, to foster cross-cultural understanding, to
give recognition to the state’s outstanding young artists, and to
enhance public support for this essential part of the curriculum;
now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature proclaims the month of
March 2013 as Arts Education Month and encourages all elected
officials to participate with their educational communities in
celebrating the arts with meaningful activities and programs for
pupils, teachers, and the public that demonstrate learning and
understanding in the visual and performing arts, and urges all
residents to become interested in and give full support to quality
school arts programs for children and youth; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.