Will proponents of racial discrimination get a ballot measure this fall?
In 1996, California voters passed Prop 209 to ban racial preferences in public education and in 2020 they reaffirmed it, write Wenyuan Wu and Eli Steele in the OC Register. Through the machinations of committed ideologues in Sacramento, a new constitutional amendment, ACA 7, could dismantle this state’s hard-won civil liberties.
If passed, [ACA 7] would legally permit race to be used as a factor in decisions about gifted and talented programs, financial aid distribution, charter school admissions, teacher training and hiring, classroom instruction methods, and countless other areas of public schooling—all with the explicit blessing of state law.
Racial discrimination of this kind is never progress. It’s a step backward into the kind of racial engineering that divides rather than unites. California’s constitution and more specifically Prop. 209—passed in 1996 by 54.5% and reaffirmed in 2020 by 57.2%—explicitly prohibit racial preferences in all aspects of public education. Yet zealous advocates ignore the law in their rush to “level the playing field,” treating racial preferences as moral imperatives that override democracy and equal rights.
No sensible lawmaker, on either side of the political aisle, should entertain such a blatant attempt to racialize public education. That was probably the reason why the California Assembly Appropriations Committee had postponed ACA 7 and turn it into a two-year bill in May 2025. Normally, two-year bills become inactive and die. But, on January 22, 2026, the Appropriations Committee made an unusual move to unsuspend ACA 7 and voted 11-to-4 in favor. As a result, the State Assembly, with a Democratic supermajority of 60 out of 80 members, is poised to approve ACA 7 and pass it onto the State Senate, which will then need a two-thirds vote to place the repeal on the November 2026 ballot.
Now, more than ever, our elected state representatives must be reminded that not even six years ago, Proposition 16 – the total repeal of Prop. 209, was overwhelmingly rejected by 9.65 million California voters. Coming from divergent political persuasions and diverse backgrounds, the broad base proves that reviving government-endorsed racial discrimination is not only substantively problematic, but also politically unpopular. That is why they are trying to pass this bill under our noses. But Democratic state senators and assembly members, who represent a large proportion of the 57.2% electorate that supported Prop. 209, need to understand this overarching political reality and turn away from ACA 7.
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