Dr. Stella Flores, associate professor of higher education and public policy at the University of Texas at Austin
Advocates last year tried and failed to repeal Prop 209, drawing attention to the state’s continued racial disparities in college access and completion despite an increasingly racially diverse population. A quarter of a century later, what has been the ban’s impact—and what comes next?
“Even though it’s been 25 years, Prop 209 is very much in conversations today,” said Dr. Eric Felix, assistant professor of administration, rehabilitation, and postsecondary education at San Diego State University, a public research university in California. “I had a meeting just last week about how race-conscious we can be when working with students in community colleges.”
Over the years, racial gaps have persisted and grown in California’s higher education institutions. In 1994 before Prop 209, the college admissions rate in the University of California (UC) system among Black applicants was six percentage points under the overall rate. Latinx applicants that same year were admitted above the average rate. But in 2019, the UC system admitted Black students at 16 percentage points lower than the overall rate. Latinx students were admitted six percentage points below that overall rate.
“To be frank, the impact of Prop 209 has been devastating on opportunities for students of color and families of color in California,” said Natalie Wheatfall-Lum, director of P-16 education policy at The Education Trust-West, a nonprofit research and advocacy group focused on educational equity in California.
These disparities are manifest in such areas as students getting into college, transferring from community colleges to four-year institutions, and then completing college.
“The bottom line is we should be seeing more progress, and we’re not,” said Dr. Stella Flores, an associate professor of higher education and public policy at the University of Texas at Austin, who studies affirmative action and college equity across the country. “California is one of the states doing the most poorly with Latino students. It has some good policies in place for college access among undocumented students. But the statewide ban is powerful enough to counter some of the progress that should be made given just how many Latinos are graduating high school and should be eligible for college.”
