BILL NUMBER: ACR 12	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Ian Calderon
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Bloom, Brown, Gomez, Levine, Waldron,
and Wilk)

                        FEBRUARY 5, 2013

   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.