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The California Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 5, otherwise known as ACA 5, is a ballot proposition asking California voters to repeal Proposition 209 in the California State Constitution. Modeled after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Proposition 209 prevents discrimination by race, gender, ethnicity, or national origin in government and higher education. The main controversy surrounding this proposition is that there is a lack of diversity in top universities like UCLA. Many Californians have attributed this decline of minorities in UCs to Proposition 209 and have called for its repeal since 2019. However, ACA 5 could hurt both minorities and Asian Americans, as it will ultimately harm the academic performance of minority students in colleges and usher in a system of discrimination against Asian Americans.
Before Proposition 209, many UCs (public university systems in California) had very few black honor students. But after the passing of Proposition 209, the percentage of black honor students increased dramatically. For example, at the University of San Diego, there was one only black student with a GPA of 3.5 or better out of a class of 3,268 students before Prop. 209. Two years following the proposition, more than 20% of the black freshman had a GPA of 3.5 or better. Additionally, for the very first time since 1998, the UCSD report found that there was not a substantial difference in GPA based on race and ethnicity. Not only were students at UCSD getting better grades, but the academic jeopardy rate (defined as a GPA of less than 2.0) for minority students fell as well. Prior to Prop. 209, 15% of black students and 17% of Native American students had a GPA of less than 2.0. After the proposition, the black and Native American rates fell to 6%. Furthermore, a NAS (National Association of Scholars) report showed that the degrees awarded to black undergraduates increased by 42%, and the degrees to Hispanic students jumped 95% in California State Universities. Similarly, research into the UC system has shown that Proposition 209 increased minority students’ GPAs, graduation rates, and rates of majoring in science or engineering. The researchers correlate the 18% increase in graduation rates to the fact that Prop. 209 led to a more efficient sorting of minority students, meaning minorities were getting placed into well-fitted schools. Overall, Proposition 209 has tremendously benefited minorities
By repealing Prop. 209, ACA 5 effectively removes all the benefits derived from Prop. 209. Moreover, ACA 5 will create more issues by increasing the chance of student mismatch and displacement in college admissions. When students are accepted into a university based on race-based admissions and without regard to how well they fit in with the school, they don’t perform as well. A report from Duke University summarizes this idea: “Affirmative action in admissions leads to underrepresented minorities being admitted to colleges with entering credentials that are lower than their non-minority counterparts … As a result, minority students are likely to achieve lower grades and are less likely to graduate than their non-minority counterparts.” Not graduating from college is seriously detrimental, as the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities reports that there is a 3.5 times lower poverty rate for people with a bachelor’s degree compared to those with only a high school degree. Hence, if ACA 5 passes and affirmative action is reinstated, minority students will be gravely hurt.
Furthermore, affirmative action policies have been empirically proven to favor affluent applicants while displacing more deserving candidates. Many of these forgotten candidates are Asian Americans. For example, Harvard’s affirmative action policy created a quota system for Asian Americans, where the percentage of enrolled Asian freshmen each year lay around 20%. Consequently, many Asian Americans were snubbed from entry to Harvard despite having better test scores, grades, and extracurriculars than other applicants.
If ACA 5 passes, colleges will disregard the exceptional academic performances of many Asian Americans and will instead take into account skin color to achieve so-called campus diversity. This is a blatant act of discrimination against Asian Americans, so it should come as no surprise that many Asian American parents and students, particularly Chinese families, are strongly opposed to ACA 5. With the California state senate agreeing to place the proposed amendment on the 2020 November ballot, the future of the UC admissions system and Californian civil rights once again rests in the voters’ hands.
