Former Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner is calling on the district to “recognize they made a mistake and work to fix it” after filing a lawsuit alleging the district misused millions in Proposition 28 funding meant to expand arts and music education.
Beutner, who authored the statewide ballot measure, said Wednesday, Feb. 12, that the district has yet to answer a fundamental question: Where are the additional teachers and classes Proposition 28 was supposed to fund?
Proposition 28, overwhelmingly approved by California voters in November 2022, was designed to increase access to arts and music education by providing school districts with dedicated, ongoing state funding to hire arts teachers. The measure, which took effect in the 2023-24 school year, is expected to generate between $800 million and $1 billion annually, on top of existing school funding.
LAUSD has defended its use of the funding, saying it is following state guidance. In a statement Tuesday, a district spokesperson said: “We have not been served with any lawsuit regarding Prop 28. That said, we have sought to clarify any misunderstandings regarding Prop 28 and we continue to follow implementation guidance as provided by the state of California to ensure that we are fully complying with the requirements of Prop 28.”
But Beutner dismissed that response as vague.
“I didn’t quite understand it (the district’s response) myself. It seems like a lot of jargon,” Beutner said in an interview. “And they refused to answer directly the question of, if you should have hired a thousand teachers, where are they?”
The lawsuit, filed Monday, Feb. 10, by Beutner and eight student plaintiffs through their guardians, accuses LAUSD and Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho misused $76.7 million in Proposition 28 by using them to pay existing staff for existing art programs rather than hiring additional arts teachers and creating new art classes, as required by law.
Beutner argued that the district’s handling of Prop. 28 is depriving students—especially those in underserved communities—of the arts education voters overwhelmingly approved.
The lawsuit also accuses LAUSD of providing false and misleading information to the public to cover up its actions.
“The lawsuit makes three fundamental claims,” Beutner said. “The first is that LA Unified misused Prop. 28 funds. The second is that it provided false and misleading information to the public in the state of California to cover up its crime, and the third is that the civil rights of black and Latino students are being violated.”
Beutner pointed to LAUSD’s own statements as proof of wrongdoing, citing an August 2024 memo from Carvalho to the school board in which he allegedly acknowledged that the district used Prop. 28 money to pay existing staff rather than hiring new teachers.
“Given historic staffing challenges in filling arts educator roles and because 80% of Prop. 28 must be spent on labor, the district prioritized the use of Prop 28 funds to cover existing staff as well as hire new staff,” Carvalho said, according to the memo.
Throughout his tenure as superintendent, Beutner leveraged his connections in the business and philanthropic world to bring outside investment into LAUSD. His administration helped secure partnerships with major figures and companies to bring various arts and music programs to LAUSD, expanding opportunities for students—particularly in underserved communities.
Some of these initiatives included a collaboration with Illumination Entertainment, the studio behind Despicable Me, to launch a storytelling and animation class and a partnership with George Clooney and other Hollywood figures to create a film and television program aimed at diversifying the entertainment industry.
As for the next step, Beutner said he hopes the lawsuit will force the district to take corrective action.
“We hope that the school board and the superintendent will recognize they made a mistake and work to fix it, put the money back in schools that they unlawfully took from schools , to start hiring teachers and start to make things right for students,” Beutner said.
He also warned that LAUSD’s handling of Prop. 28 could set a dangerous precedent for other districts across California.
“And we hope there’s a further effect across the state because some school districts are doing the right thing, others are not,” he said. “ And when you have the largest school district in the state doing the wrong thing, the exact opposite of what the law prescribes, I’m sure there are other, probably smaller school districts, who sort of hide behind the umbrella of LA Unified and say, ‘well, if they can get away with it, then we will too.’”
The lawsuit is backed by unions representing nearly all of LAUSD’s workforce, including United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 99 and Teamsters Local 572.