As a Professor at UCLA, as an education researcher, and as a proud citizen
of our wonderfully diverse state of California, I am strongly opposed to Proposition
54. This proposition threatens our democracy, whose very foundation is free
and uncensored information. Californians must have full and complete information
that tells them whether the state is fulfilling its precious promise of equal
opportunity to all its diverse citizens. Anything else is simply un-American.
This is nowhere more important than in K-12 and higher education. We simply cannot allow racial censorship to restrict our right to monitor how our schools and universities are serving our state.
Some might try to persuade you that schools and colleges won’t be that affected if Prop 54 passes—that federal reporting requirements will allow them to continue collecting racial data.
Don’t be fooled. Prop 54 would strike a devastating blow on every level
of our state’s education system.
The federal government only requires schools to report test scores and high
school graduation rates for racial groups. It only requires colleges and universities
to report the number of students who enroll from each racial group. So, under
Prop 54, we will only be able to know that Latino and African Americans get
lower test scores, graduate from high school at lower rates, and are underrepresented
at the University of California.
However, Prop 54 will forbid us to know anything about why. We won’t
be able to monitor whether students from various racial groups are provided
or denied qualified teachers, decent school facilities, solid academic class
work, extra support programs, or the chance to prepare for college. We won’t
know whether school discipline practices are used fairly or unfairly, or whether
suspensions and expulsions are keeping struggling minority students out of
school. We won’t know whether college admissions practices are fair,
or whether all groups of students have access to student services, financial
aid, and many other programs.
Why does this matter? Without complete information and good research, policymakers,
educators, and the public won’t know why we have such terrible racial
gaps in school achievement and college going. Even worse, without this information,
we can’t fix the problems that perpetuate the gaps. Under Prop 54, the
policymakers and educators will simply have to guess about what policies to
revise and what services to provide.
Unfortunately, Prop 54 doesn’t forbid Californians from using hurtful
and usually inaccurate racial stereotypes. So, without good information to
help us understand or fix the racial gaps in schools and colleges, the public
will likely resort to stereotypes and blame the students, their families,
and their race for their own failures. This is not only wrongheaded, it is
dangerous.
For all these reasons, the Regents of the University of California overwhelmingly
oppose Prop 54. Prop 54 author Ward Connerly may be a UC Regent, but the rest
of the Board of Regents, the President, the faculty, and the students of the
University of California are all strongly opposed to this initiative.
It’s absolutely clear that, if Prop 54 wins, our students and schools,
and along with them the future of the state’s economic, political and
cultural well being, would be the losers. We cannot let that happen.