PLEASE HELP ME DEFEAT THE NEW ACA7: In February, I wrote about the California’s latest effort to gut ACA7:
THEY’RE BAAAACK!! AND NOW THEY WANT TO DISCRIMINATE BY RACE IN STUDENT FINANCIAL AID!!: Legislators in the California Assembly are at it again—trying to gut Proposition 209, the history-making ballot initiative that amended the state constitution in 1996 to ban state-sponsored preferential treatment on the basis of race, sex, or ethnicity. And I literally mean “history-making.” Paul Johnson’s History of the American People tells the story of America from the late 15th century to the end of the 20th. Somehow (bless him) he found a wee bit of room to discuss Prop 209. As the co-chair of that 1996 campaign, I’m darn proud of that.
This is the third time in six years that the Cal Legislature has moved to gut Prop 209’s ban on affirmative-action preferences. In 2020, the Legislature put a referendum on the ballot to repeal Prop 209 entirely. But it was THUMPINGLY defeated—over 57% of voters said NO—even though YES Campaign spent 14 times more than we did. (I’m proud of having co-chaired that campaign too.) In 2024, the Assembly approved a trickier version that would have empowered the governor to make an unlimited number of EXCEPTIONS to Prop 209. But that version never made it past the Senate. Cooler heads prevailed there—largely because we descended on their offices, held rallies, and buried them in letters, emails, and tweets.
But they just can’t stop. The newest effort would exempt public education from Prop 209’s coverage. Given the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in the Harvard case, this bill does not try to exempt admissions in higher education. But it exempts everything else. The big-ticket items would be (1) discrimination in admission to programs for gifted and talented students at the Kindergarten-12th grade level; (2) discrimination funding of K-12 schools based on the racial composition of the students there; and (3) discrimination in financial aid in higher education.
The bill has now passed in the Assembly, but it just barely got the votes it needed. (We never win in the Assembly.) It’s pending in the Rules Committee of the Senate, where I hope it will be slow-walked into oblivion. We defeated the previous version of this bill in the Senate two years ago. I am optimistic that we can do it again if we make enough noise. Unlike last time, nobody is telling me that this version is going to pass no matter what I do. In order to win, we only need to persuade four Democrats not to support the bill. (Last time, we needed six, so this should be easier.)
If you have the time and the inclination, please help by emailing these senators and their chiefs of staff:
A short, simple, and polite message is what’s called for. The optimal message is this:
Keep discrimination illegal. Please vote NO on ACA7.
You can copy all the addresses into your email and send just one such message.
Yes, we have other ways that we’re trying to make noise—letters, telephone calls, X posts, op-eds, Zoom visits, in-person visits, and rallies. But this week, emails (especially emails that include the chiefs of staff) may be what will work best. (And no, you don’t have to be from California to send an email.) Rallies and in-person visits will come next.