Equal Treatment for Every Child Is Worth Defending – Again

By Mitch Siegler, Founder

Thirty years ago this November, Californians wrote a vital promise into their state constitution: we will not discriminate. Now Sacramento wants to carve K-12 schools out of it.

Approved by voters on November 5, 1996, Proposition 209 says the state "shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin" in public employment, public education, or public contracting.

It was basic common sense, so activists, of course, never accepted it. Amid the national paroxysm of radical activism in 2020, the Legislature asked voters to repeal it outright with Proposition 16. The repeal effort was endorsed by nearly every major newspaper and Democrat elected official in the state, and its backers – including the California Teachers Association, which gave $3.5 million – outspent opponents by 14 to 1. Thankfully, Californians understood what was at stake, and the measure lost 57% to 43%.

A 2023 repeal attempt then died in the State Senate, but the crusade continues to this day.

On August 30, the Legislature gave final approval to Assembly Constitutional Amendment 7 (ACA 7); it will be sent to voters on November 7, 2028. Branded the "Closing the Student Opportunity and Achievement Gap Act," it would delete the words "public education" from Prop 209 and replace them with "higher education admissions and enrollment." That one swap would strip Prop 209's protections from every K-12 classroom in the state, allowing schools to discriminate in the name of "equity."

But Prop. 209 is even more important today than when it was first passed a generation ago. Much of California's education establishment falsely perceives racial disparity as per se evidence of discrimination and embraces a version of "equity" that preposterously seeks to fight racism with more racism by dividing students into oppressors and oppressed by group identity, teaching that power and success are stolen, not earned, and funding schools through formulas that look at the racial makeup of a student body instead of need and academic performance.

In a state so eager to treat children differently by race in the name of fairness, Prop. 209 has often been the last guardrail. As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in Students for Fair Admissions (2023), "eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it."

Without Prop. 209, districts could use race to determine which students are placed in gifted and talented programs, who receives tutoring and other support, and how to divide dollars among schools. Two children from the same neighborhood, with the same grades and the same family income, could be treated differently because of a box checked on an enrollment form. That is exactly the zero-sum, us-versus-them thinking that THINC is working to keep out of schools. And because federal civil rights law forbids racial discrimination, school districts that test the new rules would invite costly lawsuits, paid for with money that should go to teaching.

None of this is necessary. California already directs extra resources to students who need them, including low-income students, English learners, and foster youth, without asking anyone’s race. Helping struggling children is a goal all of us share. Sorting children by skin color is not the way to achieve it.

Our schools should teach students that they are individuals with equal dignity whose many backgrounds flow together into one American story. E pluribus unum is not just a motto for the classroom; it should be the rule for how the state treats every child in it.

Californians affirmed equal treatment in 1996 and again in 2020. We have two years to make sure they do it a third time. Even those who live elsewhere should be concerned since what starts in California rarely stays there. Talk with your friends and neighbors about ACA 7, ask candidates and school board members where they stand, and reach out to policymakers. THINC will keep you informed about this important issue.