Pasadena Unified and every other California district receiving Prop. 28 arts money would face a new certification requirement under a bill headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk.

Assembly Bill 2440 passed the state Legislature unanimously on Wednesday, Sept. 2. The bill targets confusion around Proposition 28, the 2022 voter-approved initiative that dedicates roughly $1 billion a year to music, theater, drama and fine art in K-12 schools.

Prop. 28 requires that arts dollars supplement existing programs, not replace them. But that rule proved hard to follow. Dozens of districts statewide returned their Prop. 28 allocations rather than risk spending them incorrectly and facing lawsuits, LAist reported.

PUSD has not been identified among districts that returned funds. The board approved a Prop. 28 expenditure report for 2024-25 at its Aug. 28, 2025, meeting, voting 7-0. Its Aug. 27 agenda included a new expenditure report for 2025-26 and a spending plan for 2026-27. In March, the board passed Resolution 2866 declaring the rights of all students to equitable arts education, voting 6-0.

Still, the bill's certification language would apply districtwide. The amended version requires each district to "certify that all provisions of (Proposition 28) have been implemented at each of its school sites."

The dispute that shaped the bill centers on Los Angeles Unified. Austin Beutner, the chief architect of Prop. 28 and former LAUSD superintendent, sued the district in 2025, alleging it diverted $76.7 million in Prop. 28 funding to cover existing salaries, according to EdSource. LAUSD denies the allegation. The case remains pending in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Beutner initially opposed AB 2440, saying it "gutted" Prop. 28 by giving districts too much leeway. He withdrew his opposition in mid-August after lawmakers added the certification requirement.

"My hope is that this causes districts to further reflect on whether they're in compliance with Prop. 28," Beutner said after the vote.

The bill, authored by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Torrance Democrat, aligns Prop. 28 with the state's existing arts framework so districts have a clear definition of what counts as an arts class. It also lets schools pool their Prop. 28 money to share arts teachers. Districts that cannot meet Prop. 28's rule that at least 80% of funds go toward hiring educators can seek a waiver from the California Department of Education.

A statewide teacher shortage complicates the picture. A Stanford Research Institute study published in October 2025 found California short 5,000 arts teachers. Kyle Holmes, director of statewide arts initiatives for the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association, said at a February Assembly hearing that districts "are going to have to return some of their Prop. 28 funding at the end of this year … not because they don't want to support the arts, but because they don't want to be out of compliance."

PUSD operates arts magnet programs at Altadena Arts Magnet for grades TK-5 and Eliot Arts Magnet for grades 6-8, and offers visual and performing arts at all district sites.

Districts face a hard deadline: unspent Prop. 28 funds may have to be returned at the end of 2026 when the initiative's three-year spending window closes.