1. Proposition 209 in 1996 banned the use of race or ethnicity in admissions for public schools in California.
2. Schools could get around the ban at a UC Level, through the use of a holistic method. Basically through your essay, if you said the right things you would get admitted. UC's also did everything they could to encourage minority students with special programs (I have a vivid memory of when my daughter mentioned a UC Berkeley Representative was at her High School, but would only talk to Black and Latino students, and no Asians). At a Cal State level, admissions is based on test scores and grades, due to lack of funding for a holistic methods.
3. After 209 passed, at the top UC's the amount of Asian (mostly Chinese and some Koreans) have increased. UC Berkeley is now 39% Asian, where the Asian percentage of California's population is 14.9%. African American at UC Berkeley is 3%, and the percentage of population in California is 6.6%. 13% of UC Berkeley's undergraduate is Hispanic, compared to being 38.2% in California.
4. SCA 5 is by a Latino Politician, Sen. Ed Hernandez from West Covina, who noticed the lack of Latino's in higher education compared to their percent of the population of California.
5. After the democratic controlled senate voted on a party line vote, the Chinese senators got an earful from their Chinese constituents who feared their children would be discriminated against in admissions.
6. UCLA and UC Berkeley to increase funding are letting in out of state and foreign students, who can pay full rate. 22% of UC Berkeley's undergraduate are foreign students for 2013.

1. What a horrible job the K-12 system has been doing for many Black and Latino students.  
2. The amount of spaces at UC's have not kept pace with the increase in California population
3. The master plan for California's colleges is out of date.
4. The huge growth at Colleges of administrator salaries and numbers.
5. Many UC's not focused value for dollars spent by students. The cost to attend a UC is now around $30,000 per year. Tuition alone is $13,200 for CA residents, for non-residents it's $36,078.
6. College admissions has become a crap shoot, where the admissions decisions often don't make sense - one of my daughter's friends was admitted to UC Berkeley, but not UC San Diego...

Labels: affirmative action, college admissions, Mixed Race, Racism