The League strongly supports a high-quality public education system in California. Because of a variety of voter-supported initiatives which limit and prescribe state and local spending, California does not provide the level of financial support for its schools that the League considers adequate. This proposition would provide additional financial resources (about $1 billion per year), specifically for music and arts education. We recognize that arts and music education, which has been underfunded in California, is beneficial to student achievement, cognitive development, reading comprehension, attendance, and social emotional wellness. Furthermore, Prop 28 is designed to ensure that low-income schools and under-resourced  students, who are often kept the farthest away from arts and music education opportunities, will benefit from the increased funding. Despite these advantages, we remain neutral on Prop 28 because making decisions about budget expenditures through ballot measures is not a good policy. It reduces the flexibility our legislators need to react to future needs and makes less revenue available to other important state priorities like climate change, health care, and housing. Earmarking funds in this way also limits the ability of local school boards to respond to local needs. Finally, we are concerned that Prop 28 has extensive reporting requirements paired with an unrealistically low cap (1 percent) on administrative expenses.