Dive Brief:
- A proposed California constitutional amendment to allow the state’s public universities to base admissions decisions on race or gender preferences has been put on hold.
- State legislative leaders sent the proposal to a special task force for study after the proposal didn’t gain enough support for a two-thirds majority vote in the state’s Assembly, which was needed to put it on a public ballot.
- Three Asian-American lawmakers who voted in favor of the proposal in the state Senate were reconsidering their support, and asked the state Assembly leaders to do so as well. Their constituents complained that the amendment could make it more difficult for their children to get into state schools.
Dive Insight:
The proposal has been sent into limbo, with hearings on it planned throughout the state. California’s voters approved a ballot measure in 1996 that barred race and gender preferences in university admissions, hiring and public contracts. That led to a sharp drop in enrollment at the state’s public universities by black and Latino students, and that enrollment has never fully recovered, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.