California bill asking voters whether to repeal anti-affirmative action Prop. 209 advances

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Source: San Francisco Chronicle

SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers advanced a constitutional amendment Wednesday to overturn Proposition 209, the affirmative action ban approved by state voters in the 1990s that critics say perpetuates inequality for women and people of color.

By a vote of 58-9, the Assembly passed ACA5, which would strip language from the state Constitution prohibiting the consideration of race and sex in public education, employment and contracting.

It is the first major step toward rescinding the law, a decision that would ultimately be left to California voters. If approved in the Senate by a two-thirds vote by June 25, the measure will appear on the November ballot, giving the state a chance to weigh in on the issue for the first time in a generation. Voters could repeal Prop. 209 by a simple majority.

[...]

The Legislature last took up the issue in 2014, when the state Senate passed a proposed constitutional amendment that would have asked voters to reverse the ban on consideration of race and sex in college admissions. The Assembly shelved the measure after Asian Americans said it could limit their children’s ability to get into California’s most selective public universities, where Asian Americans make up a greater share of students than in the overall population.

Read more: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/California-bill-asking-voters-whether-to-repeal-15331604.php

[Hekate]

1. I would be thrilled if we could overturn Prop 209

I was on my County's AA Commission for the last dozen years of its 30 year existence. As I left my chairmanship to devote myself to finishing a dissertation, I told my colleagues the commission would be coming to an end in the near future and just prepare their minds for that. Prop 209 was at our doorstep.

My favorite anecdote about the history of the local AAC had to do with the composition of the County workforce: People used to say it was just like working with family. Well, why wouldn't they say that? Often enough vacancies didn't even need to be advertised, because employees would tell their neighbors, cousins, friends that an opening was coming up. When AA came along, it got a lot more competitive if only because every job had to be advertised and openly recruited. By the time I left, the County workforce closely resembled the makeup of the county itself.

I have no idea how it is today. They did retain an EEO officer, and of course people were used to the idea by then. But the forces of misinformation, entitlement, and resentment that caused Prop 209 to be passed in the first place existed in our area just like everywhere else.

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2. What do you think about this study about the effect of 209 on graduation rates?

From the 2011 study "The Effects of Proposition 209 on College Enrollment and Graduation Rates in California":

Although enrollments for minorities fell post-Prop 209, two-thirds of the drop came from the CSU [California State University] system[,] which consists primarily of non-selective institutions. More notably, we find that minority graduation rates increased after Prop 209 was implemented, a finding consistent with the argument that affirmative action bans result in better matching of students to colleges.

Are better graduation rates a favorable outcome out of Prop 209 in looking at long-term success in a student's life?