How California has dealt with a ban on affirmative action (prop 209)

[usonian]

Last edited Fri Jun 30, 2023, 02:40 AM - Edit history (1)

Here are three articles discussing the impact and how educational institutions have tried to work around it.

Here's what happened after California banned affirmative action 25 years ago

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/29/1185140182/heres-what-happened-after-california-banned-affirmative-action-25-years-ago

June 29, 2023

In fact, it's taken UCLA more than two decades to make up the lost ground.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: We turn to the Supreme Court's rejection of affirmative action today. That decision means many of the nation's top universities are likely to see an immediate drop in Black and Latino enrollment. As NPR's Adrian Florido reports, that's what happened in California after that state banned affirmative action 25 years ago.

ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: California knows all about what an affirmative action ban can mean for college campuses. When voters approved a ban that took effect in 1998, the impact at the state's top two public colleges was staggering.

ZACHARY BLEEMER: Enrollments at Berkeley and UCLA among Black and Hispanic students fell 40% immediately.

FLORIDO: Zachary Bleemer is a Princeton economist who's studied the ban's impacts on minority enrollment at University of California campuses. After Black and Latino numbers plummeted, the schools had to figure out how to get them back up using only race-neutral policies. It's been 25 years of trial and error.

With affirmative action gone, California shows what may come next

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2023/0629/With-affirmative-action-gone-California-shows-what-may-come-next

By Ira Porter Staff writer
Henry Gass Staff writer
June 29, 2023
SANTA BARBARA, CALIF.

“UC Santa Barbara has a history of producing scholars, inventors, and scientists,” he adds. “Schools [like that] partnering with grassroots organizations that work directly with the kids is critical, and it completes the cycle in a positive way.”

Now, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that two race-based college admissions policies are unconstitutional, UCSB may become a reference point for universities around the country. While the high court appears to have left universities with some wiggle room to consider race in admissions, those policies are now, for the first time in 45 years, broadly prohibited nationwide.

California, though, has not had affirmative action for 25 years, and universities there have found a way forward. For Mr. Mathis and Mr. Fluker, the way forward on this April afternoon is to a nearby beach, where students pick seashells, pose for pictures, and play icebreaker games with members of UCSB’s Black Student Union.

This is the work. Sometimes it’s arduous, with long days and nights in rental cars traveling up and down America’s most populous state to speak with prospective students. Sometimes it’s asking for favors from faculty and staff or student groups when potential students visit campus. Sometimes it’s heavy labor – like breaking down tables. But the work is always strategic; it’s always intentional.

Examining the impact of California's ban on affirmative action in public schools
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/27/1184461214/examining-the-impact-of-californias-ban-on-affirmative-action-in-public-schools

June 27, 20235:10 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition

MARTÍNEZ: Now, your research goes beyond college life to long-term economic outcomes resulting from the '96 ban. What did you find?

BLEEMER: So when you compare Black and Hispanic and Native American Californians who turned 18 in 1998, one year too late for them to take advantage of the University of California's prior affirmative action policies, you see that, you know, they enroll at less selective universities because affirmative action was unavailable. And that has long-run ramifications for those students. They're less likely to earn graduate degrees. Among lower-testing students, they're less likely to ever earn an undergraduate degree at all. They're less likely to earn degrees in lucrative STEM fields. And if you follow them into the labor market, for the subsequent 15 or 20 years, they're earning about 5% lower wages than they would have earned if they'd had access to more selective universities under affirmative action.

Black and Hispanic students saw substantially poorer long-run labor market prospects as a result of losing access to these very selective universities. But there was no commensurate gain in long-run outcomes for the white and Asian students who took their place. It seems like these very selective public universities in California just provided greater value to relatively disadvantaged Black and Hispanic students who came from lower-income neighborhoods, had poorer job networks, relatively less access to otherwise successful peers, and who were thus able to better take advantage of the resources provided by these super selective universities than the white and Asian students who took their places.

[summer_in_TX]

1. Hope institutes of hisgher learning immediately

adopt plans to get and keep students from all races and backgrounds.

Thank you for sharing these, usonian! They show a way forward – and what would happen if there were no model to learn from and find best practices now rather than using trial and error.

[Bread and Circuses]

2. Ending AA doesn't mean the end to access

I know what happened when Prop 209 passed. It has not been a disaster....but it has had an impact and a rethinking about how to prepare students from underserved communities to gain admission.

UC and CSU use a broad criteria to select the incoming freshman class, which includes socio-economic consideration based upon the high school attended and the students' residence.
The approach is that a good student from a low academic performing high school or one who lives in a low-middle class neighborhood deserves consideration for admission.

The UC system is very competitive and highly selective, accepting only the top 9% of CA graduating seniors. The CSU is less selective But, desirable majors and departments are impacted or over-enrolled and some CSU campuses (CalPoly and San Diego) are

A student who graduates from a CA community college with Transfer admission guarantee (TAG) completed WILL gain admission to the major and campus that they want. That's the key point. Access is available. I have seen many transfer students be successful and continue to graduate and professional schools.

However, across UC campuses there are only 4% Black, with 22% Latino and 35% Asian. The percentages are better at the CSU system ( 4 % Black, 47% Latino). The CA community colleges have open enrollment.

The UC, CSU systems have outreach programs to help underprivileged students compete for admission. Once on campus, there are numerous student support services open to all students. I have direct knowledge.

The point I'd like to stress is that higher education in California is guided by the CA master plan of higher education. It needs to be revised, it provides distinct mission and funding so as to avoid squabbling over funding and resources. It's not perfect. I am a huge fan of the CA community colleges. Affordable, accessible and with the TAG....opportunities are there for not just 18 year olds but for older adults who want a college education.

Thanks for reading my post.

[Unwind Your Mind]

4. Opportunities for people like me too

I was poor student in high school. Smart but unmotivated. I went back to CC at 24, transferred to CSU and earned a degree with honors. The normal track would have left me out.

So I too am a big fan of our Community College system, it provides an opportunity for anyone who wants it

[Hekate]

5. This is a very good reminder. All my side of the family started at a California Community College...

My dad extended his career at Lockheed Aircraft by a couple of decades by getting his electronics certificate at Chaffey. After Chaffey I transferred back to University of Hawai’i for my BA, and in midlife got my PhD at Pacifica in California. My sis went to UC Berkeley from Chaffey, and as one of very few women in her class, became a computer engineer. Our younger brother became a geophysicist after starting at Chaffey — got his BS at UCSB and his Master’s at San Diego CSU.

Money was a real issue for us — not color, but serious lack of money.

Even my husband, who started at CCNY, got his BA at UCSB and MBA at Fresno State, ended up teaching at Santa Barbara’s community college for 22 years after many years of coding and analysis in the computer industry.

Our oldest grandson will be starting at SB City College this fall, and UCSB after that. We had a long talk with him a couple of months ago about how we’re setting aside funds to help him when he transfers, and if he keeps working and saving the way he has been, he should be able to get through without loans.

Thank you for being the spark that brought me out of being so bummed. Like you, I am a huge fan of the Calif. community college system.

[Hekate]

3. Thank you for this info, usonian. I thought (and still do) that AA was a worthy endeavor...

It grieves me more than I can express that so many people bought into the lies, first that it was a quota system, and second, that everything in life is a zero-sum game.

This SCOTUS exhausts me. They are undoing the progress of my lifetime, the progress of the second half of the 20th century, all the advances I cheered for.

Bookmarking your post to read all the links later, especially the one about UCSB, since I worked on staff there for quite a few years.

Hekate
Santa Barbara County Affirmative Action Commission
1989 - 2001