New State Task Force Will Try to Put Arts Education Back in Public Schools

Attempting to infuse visual and performing arts education back into public schools, state education chief Delaine Eastin on Friday announced the formation of a task force that will include “La Bamba” director Luis Valdez.

“I’m on fire to do this,” the state superintendent of education said.

Her goal in forming the Arts Work panel, she said, is to “get some muscle” behind proposals to restore art, music, drama and dance instruction--classes that were severely cut back during the past two decades--by firmly establishing a link between the arts and California’s economy.

Eastin said that connection lies with the growth industries of entertainment and technology, both of which rely on creativity and art training and yet have trouble finding enough of it in this state. When Disney recently needed to hire animators, it had to look to other countries, Eastin noted.

The commission will include 40 members, ranging from artists to business people. On Friday, Eastin named only the three co-chairs: Valdez, who heads the Institute of Teledramatic Arts at Cal State Monterey Bay; Bronya Galef, a professional photographer and co-founder of the Galef Institute, an education reform group; and Bill Cirone, the Santa Barbara County superintendent of schools.

Plans call for the full committee to be in place by mid-April and for the task force to present its recommendations by October at the latest in hopes of using them as the foundation for arts education legislation.

“Right now people say, ‘That would be nice,’ but we can’t afford it,” Eastin said. “I think we can afford it and we can’t afford not to.”