State lawmakers want to segregate financial aid. Will voters stop them?
Civil rights advocate Tony Guan joins a chorus of voices calling out the new ACA 7, an amendment to legalize discrimination in California. Currently snaking through the statehouse, the bill could end up on the ballot in November. Will voters let skin color decide who gets “student grants, specialized programs, and even classroom resources”? The College Fix reports.
“By narrowing the ban on discrimination to only ‘higher education enrollment,’ ACA-7 leaves all other aspects of the educational experience vulnerable to preferential treatment. This could include student grants, specialized programs, and even classroom resources,” Tony Guan, a civil rights activist in California, posted on X on March 18.
Maimon Schwarzschild, a constitutional law professor at the University of San Diego, told The College Fix the proposal runs afoul of Students for Fair Admissions, the 2023 Supreme Court decision that banned affirmative action.
“Giving financial aid to college students of one race in the form of outright grants, while students of other races — even financially needier — would be saddled with loans, would be almost laughably impossible to justify,” Schwarzschild said.
Gail Heriot, a University of San Diego professor of law emerita and co-chair of successful campaigns to uphold Prop. 209, said she is confident that ACA-7 will be defeated should it reach the ballot box.
“We beat the last ballot measure designed to gut Proposition 209 with over 57% of the vote even though we were outspent by more than 14 to 1,” Heriot said in an email. “Polls have consistently shown that opposition to race preferences is both strong and unwavering.”
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