Raising the curtain on Prop 28: Can arts education help transform California schools?

Matthew Garcia-Ramirez is a Chicano, queer, and first generation student. Garcia-Ramirez is currently a second year social policy and public service major with an emphasis in education at the University of California, Irvine.

Garcia-Ramirez has been awarded the prestigious California Arts Scholar title through the completion of the California State Summer School of the Arts and the Herb Alpert Emerging Young Artist Award.

Austin Beutner is the former superintendent of Los Angeles Unified who spearheaded Proposition 28.

Malissa Feruzzi Shriver is the strategic philanthropy and arts education advocacy advisor for Architect Frank Gehry, and together they co-founded Turnaround Arts: California. Shriver was the founding Executive Director of the organization and currently serves as the board chair.

She has served as First Vice President of the board for the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) and Chair of the NASAA Arts Learning Advisory Committee; the governing board for the Western States Arts Federation; and the advisory board for the Center for Research on Creativity.

She was appointed by California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson to co-chair a task force on creative education after chairing the California team for the National Endowment for the Arts’ Education Leaders Institute. The task force was charged with writing A Blueprint for Creative Schools, which was released in 2015.

Shriver co-founded CREATE CA (Core Reforms Engaging Arts to Educate in California), a statewide initiative to address the erosion of arts education in public schools. She was appointed to the California Arts Council by Governor Schwarzenegger, serving two terms, with four years as Chair.

Jessica Mele is a writer, educator, grantmaker, and performer based in California. She is currently Interim Executive Director at Create CA and founder of her own consulting practice, Jessica Mele Creative.

From 2025-2023, she was a Program Officer in Performing Arts Program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation where she managed a diverse portfolio of grants, with a focus on arts education policy and advocacy. Before she made grants, Jessica was a nonprofit executive director, union organizer and higher education administrator.

She has written and performed comedy for a decade as a member of San Francisco’s female-driven sketch comedy group, Chardonnay. Her solo play about motherhood and interstellar space, “Eat the Mama,” premiered in San Francisco in September 2023.

Letty Kraus is the Director of the California County Superintendents Statewide Arts Initiative which works through the 58 county offices of education to ensure all students in California have equitable access to high quality standards-based arts education. The Arts Initiative is supporting Prop 28 implementation by collaborating with state and local officials, school districts, and arts education advocates to elevate best practices, and develop and refine implementation resources.

Letty’s work is informed by her past experiences as a student who was engaged in school because of the performing arts, a teacher in an under-resourced middle school who worked to bring arts education to students whenever possible, and from her tenure at the California Department of Education where she led the development of the state board adopted standards and curriculum framework for arts education in California.

Marcos Hernandez is the principal at International Studies Learning Center at Legacy High School in Los Angeles Unified. As an immigrant to Southeast Los Angeles, he experienced first-hand the challenges and pressures students and their families face every day and uses his story to teach what is possible when one overcomes these obstacles, and reaps the benefits of an excellent education.

Read more about Hernandez and his involvement in the arts.

Karen D’Souza covers arts education, literacy, and early education. She is an award-winning writer who comes to EdSource after covering lifestyle, parenting, health, housing, travel and the arts for the San Jose Mercury News.

She is a four-time Pulitzer juror and her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times and American Theatre Magazine. She has an MA in journalism and a BA in political science and dramatic art from UC Berkeley.

Anne Vasquez took the helm as EdSource’s chief executive in May 2021. Previously, she served as Director of Content and Strategic Initiatives at EdSource. In that role, she helped shape editorial strategy, grow partnerships and expand the organization’s footprint throughout California.

Prior to joining EdSource, Anne was an executive at Tribune Publishing, where she most recently served as Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Chief Digital Officer. She previously was the Managing Editor of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Anne began her career at The Miami Herald and the San Jose Mercury News, where she was an education reporter and later an editor.