Powerful unions allege California schools are misusing arts education money, demand state intervention

If misuse of the Prop. 28 funding is or becomes widespread, "instead of hiring about 15,000 additional teachers [statewide] and aides, the funds would instead be used to pay for existing programs," the letter states. "This means millions of children will miss out on the arts education voters promised them."

The letter was sent to the governor late Friday, according to its authors. Neither the governor's office nor the California Department of Education, which also received the letter, had an immediate response.

Although the letter does not name a school district, Myart-Cruz singled out L.A. Unified as one transgressor, probably one among many.

"LAUSD is supplanting Prop. 28," Myart-Cruz said. "And I can only bet that districts across the state are doing the same thing."

She said the union is trying to gather documentation but that the school system has been slow to provide requested information.

In two recent school board meetings, David Hart, the district's chief business officer, said the district is abiding by legal requirements.

"I feel very confident that we are not, in any way, stepping afoul of the intended supplement versus supplant," Hart told board members in response to a question on Feb. 20. "I will acknowledge that there is school-by-school variance."

The budget at one L.A. school, Dixie Canyon Elementary in Sherman Oaks, has been cited by Prop. 28 advocates as an example of alleged misuse of the funding.

At that school, the issue was raised by Audrey Lieberstein, a parent leader in the PTA and the school's governing councils, who provided school budget documents and copies of correspondence with L.A. Unified to The Times.

In her emails to district officials, Lieberstein noted that last year's school budget set aside $48,766 for a two-day-a-week arts teacher. There was no such provision in this year's budget, according to the budget documents. An additional budget document she said she obtained from the principal shows the arts position being paid for by Prop. 28 funds.

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