Advocacy Update: CTE Elementary Arts Credential (AB 2437)

Hello CMEA Membership:

Governor Newsom has signed the 2024-25 state budget and related legislation is making its way through appropriation committees and hearings. We are very happy to share that CMEA led the way in lobbying, coordinating opposition/support campaigns, and were ultimately successful in removing the California CTE/Elementary arts supplementary authorization in the Governor’s omnibus education budget trailer bill!

The original language in the Governor’s omnibus education budget trailer bill directed the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) to create a new supplementary authorization for an Arts & Music CTE Elementary credential. While we are highly supportive of what CTE courses provide to our secondary students, especially around career preparation, we had concerns about the appropriateness of this new kind of credential: CTE elementary supplementary authorizations do not exist in any other content area and elementary music education should be foundational not necessarily about career preparation. We believe that existing pathways for credentialing, while underutilized, better address the teacher shortage realities in our state.

This campaign would not have been possible without the support of our partner arts education organizations (CAEA, CETA, and CDEA), CMEA section presidents, our lobbyist Martha Zaragoza Diaz, and you, our membership. In a very quick manner, we worked together to support and elevate our call that all students in music classrooms across California deserve highly qualified, credentialed arts and music teachers from UTK through grade 12.

The teacher credentialing sections of AB 2473 went through many iterations in the past several months. Ultimately, CMEA believed all teachers, not just teachers providing instruction in the visual and performing arts, would benefit from the amendments. As amended, AB2473 would do the following:

• Allow a single/multiple subject credential holder to add a supplementary authorization in art, theater, music, dance, science, math, history, etc.,
• Out-of-state single and multiple subject credential holders would be able to receive equivalent supplementary authorizations that recognize their out-of-state credentials. This includes all multiple and single subject areas with the exception of special education,
• Lastly, as amended, a credential teacher would be able to demonstrate subject matter competency for a supplementary authorization through any of the existing methods available to single subject credential candidates.

Up until this point, the current law only authorized supplementary authorizations through coursework or a major in the subject. This legislation will allow CSET, coursework, and/or transcript review as viable options for supplementary authorizations.

As amended, CMEA believes that AB 2473 clarifies and strengthens existing credentialing requirements specific to supplementary authorizations for single-subject, multiple-subject, and out-of-state credential holders. The teacher shortage will be addressed with these clarifications and students would benefit from instruction by qualified teachers, in all subjects. It is for these reasons CMEA, and our partner arts education organizations (CAEA, CDEA, CETA) fully supported AB 2473 as amended on June 24, 2024.

We would like to thank everyone who reached out with questions and concerns and those who participated in our multiple NAfME, Voter Voice Campaigns. CMEA is also tremendously grateful for the opportunity to work with both Assembly and Senate Budget and Education Committees, and their staff in assisting us in this effort. This legislation still needs to be finalized by both sides of the legislature, but CMEA and our arts education partners are excited at the possibilities created by this bill and now encourage our legislators to vote yes on AB2473 as amended.