Education Trust-West released a new policy brief highlighting the impact of Proposition 209, a 25-year-old ban on affirmative action in California.
More specifically, the study, “The Opportunity for Race-Conscious Policy and a More Equitable California,” examined ways Prop. 209 impacted California Community Colleges, which currently serves over 2 million students.
“There’s a lot of implications of potentially restoring affirmative action that have nothing to do with admissions but have to do with retention, campus climate and recruiting and retaining faculty,” said Dr. Christopher Nellum, deputy director of research and policy at Education Trust—West. “We wanted to try to shed some light on some research that provides additional evidence for folks to broaden the conversation.”
According to the brief, Prop. 209 “bans the practice of affirmative action which are antiracist attempts to remedy historic racial injustices via policy and practice.”
The fear of being in violation or having affirmative action practices “is greater than the actual language or mandates included in the law,” said Dr. Eric R. Felix, an assistant professor of community college leadership in the Department of Administration, Rehabilitation and Postsecondary Education at San Diego State University. “Educators sometimes, including myself before I did this research, are unaware of what 209 really did and also what it doesn’t do.”
Under Prop. 209, the Student Equity Policy, which required community colleges to address barriers faced by students of color, shifted its language. Rather than being racially conscious, the focus now is “providing an educationally equitable environment, regardless of ethnic origin or race for all students,” according to the brief.
It also created a “chilling effect,” meaning, efforts to support African American, Latinx students and other students of color specifically weren’t seen as legal. Instead, the narrative became “low-income, disabled, and first-generation” students, the brief found.
