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 2003 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; and (2) discrimination in financial aid in higher education.
For years, universities all over the country—at least those not subject to Proposition 209 or one of its clones—have been giving African American students much sweeter financial aid packages than equally needy Asian American or white students. The evidence of this has only recently come to light in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College (2003).
Typically, the discrimination takes the form of giving outright GRANTS to African American students, while white or Asian American students get saddled with LOANS. I have a hard time imagining that voters would approve of this. But the Assembly bill has nevertheless made it through committee on a strict party-line vote. It is expected to come to the Assembly floor soon. And right now there’s not much standing in its way.
If this goes on the ballot, I think we’ll defeat it. But it will cost millions. If by some miracle, it passes, we should be able to defeat in court any policies adopted as a result. But that, too, will cost millions and will take years of work by public interest attorneys.
I could use a little grassroots help on this. I don’t need money. Opposing legislation of this type is cheap; it’s when it goes on the ballot or ends up in litigation that it gets expensive. I need emails and tweets directed at senators. We only need to get four Democratic senators to see that this is a stupid waste of their time and money. I’ll post how you can help (on the cheap!) soon.