February 2025 — KBK Attorneys Jeffrey M. Chemerinsky, Emma M. Tehrani and Kyle J. Skinner are representing Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) students and Proposition 28 author Austin Beutner in a lawsuit filed against the school district and LAUSD Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho over the misuse of $76.7 million in Prop 28 funds.
The lawsuit says the school district’s misuse of funds deprived hundreds of thousands of students from receiving expanded arts and music instruction as mandated by law. The lawsuit also details LAUSD’s repeated violations of Prop 28’s requirements to hire teachers to increase art and music education at schools, how LAUSD provided false and misleading information to the California Department of Education and the public to cover up its misuse of its Prop 28 spending, and how LAUSD’s misuse of Prop 28 funds has violated the civil rights of Black and Latino students.
“Art and music education is essential for our kids to develop the skills they need in the classroom, in their careers, and throughout their lives. LAUSD is denying our children and their classmates the expanded arts and music education in every school that Prop 28 provided. We are disappointed that we must go to court to compel Superintendent Carvalho and LAUSD to follow the law,” said the student plaintiffs’ parents in a joint statement.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, is supported by unions representing most of LAUSD’s workforce, including United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 99, Teamsters Local 572, and Beutner. Approved by California voters in 2022 to address longstanding underfunding of arts and music education, Prop 28 provides dedicated funding to school districts to hire arts and music teachers and aides at every school so that every student benefits from increased arts and music instruction.