Multimillionaire Austin Beutner, the former superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and a longtime investment banker, has filed a lawsuit against LAUSD, alleging the district misused millions of dollars in Proposition 28 funds meant for arts education.

The lawsuit, endorsed by the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and two other unions, claims LAUSD violated the law by replacing existing arts funding with new Proposition 28 dollars, rather than using the money to expand arts programs. According to the lawsuit, the district falsely certified that it was in compliance, effectively defrauding the state and denying students promised arts instruction.

Arts and culture programs have been systematically sacrificed year after year under the recurring excuse of budget constraints. Despite widespread recognition of the arts’ role in fostering creativity, critical thinking and student engagement, funding for music, theater, visual arts and dance has continuously dwindled. Schools have seen art teachers laid off, programs cut, and resources redirected toward standardized testing and core subjects, leaving students—particularly those in underserved communities—without meaningful access to artistic expression.

Administrators claim there is “no money” for the arts. Funds are often denied, and school budgets suffer in every field, with creative education being an easy target. This long-standing pattern has diminished arts education in LAUSD, depriving generations of students of the enrichment and cultural awareness that a well-rounded education should provide.

But while on the surface, this lawsuit might appear as a noble effort to protect arts education, it is, at best, a diversionary tactic.

The underlying crisis in LAUSD is not a matter of misallocated arts funds but rather decades of systemic underfunding of public education as a whole. The corporate elite, represented by figures like plaintiff Beutner (whose net worth as of 2024 is estimated to be $115 million), has been instrumental in the erosion of public schooling, and now he poses as a champion of arts and culture. This legal action conveniently obscures the larger reality: Public schools do not receive enough funding, period.

To understand the true nature of this lawsuit, it is helpful to examine Beutner’s history in dismantling public education. Before his tenure as LAUSD superintendent (2018–2021), Beutner was a partner at the Blackstone Group, one of the most predatory investment firms in the world.

He was also a key figure in Eli Broad’s pro-charter network, which aggressively sought to expand charter schools at the expense of traditional public schools. Beutner’s appointment as LAUSD superintendent was backed by these same forces, making it clear that his objective was never to improve public education but to pave the way for its privatization.

During the 2019 Los Angeles teachers’ strike, Superintendent Beutner refused to meet teachers’ demands for better wages, smaller class sizes and increased support staff. His refusal was not an oversight; it was a calculated decision aligned with efforts to expand charter schools and dismantle public education. That same year, after a proposed funding measure was defeated, Beutner slashed LAUSD’s budget, eliminating central office positions and exacerbating the crisis in public schools. His record is one of systematically defunding education while pushing for corporate solutions.

Beutner’s role in endangering teachers and students during the COVID-19 pandemic is also well documented. As superintendent, he rushed to reopen schools despite the emergence of new variants and inadequate safety measures. His decision was not based on concern for students’ well-being but on pressure from corporate interests eager to force parents back into the workforce. He followed the playbook of the ruling class: Prioritize the economy over human lives.

Now, Beutner is positioning himself as an advocate for public arts education. This is the same man who fought against teachers, promoted austerity and sided with billionaires against public education.

Notwithstanding the responsibilities of the current LAUSD administration headed by Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, which has further expanded the destructive policies of its predecessors, Beutner’s lawsuit does not challenge the fundamental issue of chronic underfunding. Instead, it attempts to narrow the problem to a matter of mismanagement by LAUSD administrators. This misdirection serves only to shield the real perpetrators—Beutner’s own class of wealthy investors and charter school backers who have gutted public education and intend to finish the job.

It is no accident that the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) has chosen to support Beutner’s lawsuit. While presenting itself as a militant force for teachers, the UTLA bureaucracy has played a key role in legitimizing the expansion of charter schools. In Los Angeles, Green Dot Public Schools, one of the most aggressive charter operators, expanded not in opposition to UTLA but with its collaboration. Instead of fighting charterization, the teachers union negotiated contracts with Green Dot, hailing them as a model for “unionized charters.” This legitimized the destruction of public education rather than resisting it.

Even more damning, the late A.J. Duffy, former UTLA president, retired from his position and went on to open his own charter school, Apple Academy Charter Public Schools. This betrayal is emblematic of the union’s role: It does not fight privatization—it integrates itself into the process. The lawsuit against LAUSD, therefore, is nothing more than an opportunistic stunt that aligns the interests of the union bureaucracy with those of the privatizers.

With no additional budgets being allocated for public education, the primary beneficiaries of this lawsuit will not be students or teachers, but rather the political and corporate interests aligned with education privatization. By painting LAUSD as incompetent and corrupt, the lawsuit bolsters arguments for privatization, which charter advocates use to push for more privately managed schools.

At its core, this lawsuit is a smokescreen to conceal the real state of public education. It reduces the conversation to a bureaucratic dispute over arts funding, instead of highlighting the fundamental fact that every area of public education is underfunded. This is a deliberate strategy to prevent mass opposition from teachers, parents and students against the real enemy: a capitalist system that starves public schools while pouring trillions into military spending and corporate subsidies.

While LAUSD struggles to fund even basic educational needs, the US government continues to funnel billions into imperialist wars and corporate bailouts. The resources exist to fully fund public education, but they are systematically denied to the working class.

With the return of Donald Trump to power and the nomination of former professional wrestling promoter Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education, public education faces an existential threat. McMahon, a billionaire corporate executive, has a history of advocating for the privatization of public services.

The danger is clear: Public schools are under direct assault, and lawsuits like Beutner’s obfuscate the true nature of social reality more than they reveal.

Teachers and parents must see through this attempt. Beutner is not an advocate for arts or public education. The UTLA apparatus is not a genuine force against privatization. This lawsuit does nothing to address the decades of austerity imposed on public schools—It only reinforces the illusion that the problem lies in administrative mismanagement rather than systemic underfunding.

The fight for education must be waged outside the framework of the Democratic and Republican parties, independent of the pro-Democratic Party union bureaucracy, and against the billionaire-backed forces that seek to dismantle public schooling. This means expanding the network of educators rank-and-file committees, the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC), which is connecting the fight to defend immigrants with the battle to defend public education and all core democratic and social rights.

The real solution is a fully funded, publicly controlled educational system by expropriating the private fortunes of corporate profiteers like Beutner and his ilk. Teachers, parents and students must unite in an independent struggle, not for crumbs, but for the full funding of public education.