BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Passed in 2022, Prop 28 funded music and arts programs for schools across California, and the Bakersfield City School District says overall, it helps student perform better in school.
- Video shows music integration program at Thorner Elementary School
- The Bakersfield City School District hired 18 new teachers with Prop 28 funding to integration music and arts into elementary school classrooms.
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Students at Thorner Elementary School can now play instruments like this and Bakersfield City School District is one of the first in the state to make programs like this possible.
“You’re going to tell everybody. Hear ye, hear ye," Jennifer Resolme, the arts integration teacher at Thorner and Williams Elementary Schools, said as her student repeated after her. "I hereby declare. This class is in session!”
With the final declaration, the student hits the gong to start the class, and now, the morning at Thorner Elementary School begins with music.
These songs have been made possible through Proposition 28 or The Arts and Music in Schools Funding Guarantee and Accountability Act.
“With these new funds, we are able to reach them at a younger age to be able to instill all of those amazing you know ideas and experiences at such a young age,” Resolme said.
The Bakersfield City School District hired Resolme along with 17 other teachers across the district since 2023.
“Without this program, you are basically just relying on the regular classroom teacher to implement it into their regular classroom hours or their minutes, their instructional minutes, and not every teacher is experienced in that," she said.
Prop 28 requires 80% of the funds to go to hiring staff to lead the programs while the rest of the funding supports training, purchasing supplies like instruments, and facilitating arts educational partnership programs.
“Children who are involved in the arts have better attendance to school. They have higher higher attendance percentages. They also do better academically. Their grade point averages are higher than those who don’t elect to take music classes,” Michael Stone, the visual and performing arts coordinator for the Bakersfield City School District, said.
According to a study conducted by BCSD junior high band and choir students report about a 2% higher attendance rate compared to students without music courses on their schedules along with a grade point average nearly a half point higher than their peers.
“You can see the lights go on in the eyes of the children when they learn something by doing,” Stone said.
That critical instruction time at an early age, Resolme says helps students appreciate the arts and helps them develop into a more well rounded person.
“Some of the students would go throughout elementary school without ever being introduced to it, and I think this is just really changing the trajectory of their lives by introducing it at such a young age," Resolme added.
If your student has an interest in the arts and would like to be involved in a program like this you can reach out to their school for more information on how to get them involved.
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