Just four years after California voters decisively rejected an attempt to gut the state’s ban on racial discrimination, Sacramento Democrats are trying again, this time with a stealthier approach designed to slip past the same citizens who stopped them before.
The California Legislature authorized a new referendum on a strict party-line vote in late August. If approved, the measure would effectively remove Proposition 209 protections from most of public education, opening the door to race-based preferences in everything from gifted program admissions to university financial aid and campus housing.
Proposition 209 has protected Californians from government discrimination based on race, sex, or ethnicity for three decades. The new referendum takes direct aim at that protection, carving out exceptions for K-12 education entirely and nearly all aspects of higher education except admissions, which the Supreme Court already ruled unconstitutional for race-based preferences in 2023.
The measure won’t reach voters until November 2028, giving Californians years to examine what’s really at stake.
The sponsors aren’t hiding their ultimate goal. All are members of the California Legislative Black Caucus, and they’ve made clear the referendum is part of the CLBC’s “Road to Repair” priority bill package. That package is built directly on recommendations from California’s Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans.
Among those recommendations: entirely free tuition for African Americans at state universities.
Financial aid discrimination appears to be the most immediate target. While universities have long considered a student’s ability to pay when awarding aid, adding race as a factor would benefit children of well-off parents who can afford tuition but happen to be the preferred race. Critics argue this approach will only breed racial resentment rather than address genuine need.
The K-12 implications are equally troubling. Removing Proposition 209 protections from elementary and secondary schools would allow discrimination in admissions to gifted and talented programs, a practice that was common in California before voters passed the initiative in 1996.
California’s Democratic leadership has been down this road before, and voters made their position clear, rejecting it 57% to 44%.
That defeat apparently taught Sacramento lawmakers nothing about the public’s actual priorities. With California facing a homelessness crisis, devastating wildfires, and crumbling infrastructure, the Legislature has once again prioritized identity politics over the problems affecting everyday families.
