Congresswoman Young Kim is pushing a bill that would prevent schools from receiving federal funds if the institution discriminates based on race, sex, ethnicity, color, or national origin in student aid decisions.
Kim’s action comes as California Democrats seek to revive affirmative action in public education.
The Stop DEI Act, which Kim plans to introduce Wednesday, is in direct response to ACA 7 — which if passed by voters, would amend the state’s constitution to allow for race-based and sex-based preferences in most public education programs.
“Schools that award aid based on merit or financial need have nothing to worry about, this only impacts institutions that choose to prioritize identity over equal treatment,” Kim told The California Post.
“No one wants to be reduced to a DEI check box that says you’re Asian, Black, Hispanic, White.”
Kim, who is one of the first Korean American women elected to Congress, said ACA 7 would remove decades of progress when it comes to combating discrimination in schools.
“I don’t want ACA 7 to gut Prop 209 and reopen the door to discrimination in our education system and undo decades of progress toward equal treatment under the law,” Kim said. Taxpayer dollars should reflect that those funds go to students based on merit and needs not to systems that pick winners and losers based on identity politics”
In 1996 voters approved a measure that amended the state’s constitution to prohibit discrimination “against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex color, ethnicity, or national originality in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.”
ACA 7 — which passed the State Assembly but still needs to pass in the State Senate before making it on the November ballot — would scale back those protections significantly when it comes to public education.
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Banning discrimination and preferential treatment based on sex or race would continue to apply to public employment and public contracting.
“Discrimination will be permitted under the state constitution in K-12. It would be permitted throughout higher education with the exception of admissions and enrollment,” William Jacobson, a law professor at Cornell and founder of the Equal Protection Project told The Post.
Jacobson said the carve out of admissions is an invalid attempt to circumvent the 2023 Supreme Court Ruling that barred race-conscious affirmative action in college enrollment.
“The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Harvard and University of North Carolina cases was in the context of admissions and enrollment, but the legal principles there, the equal protection legal principles of the Supreme Court ruling apply everywhere,” he said. “They don’t just apply to enrollment and admissions.”
The Cornell law professor sent a letter to the Higher Education Committee and the Appropriations Committee on Tuesday expressing his organization’s opposition to the measure, arguing it “violates the promise of equality that the Fourteenth Amendment and Prop 209 protect.”
If the constraints of the non-discrimination provisions were lifted, Jacobson said the Stop DEI Act could act as a deterrent for some schools.
“Her legislation, as it’s been broadly described, could have a good prophylactic effect,” he said. “But, of course, my point is why should we even need that? We shouldn’t need that. California should uphold its current code of conduct.”
Voters rejected an attempt from California state lawmakers in 2020 to restore affirmative action with Prop 16, that would have allowed gender or ethnicity to be considered in public education, public employment and public contracting.
“We thought we stopped it and then of course they come back again and again, “ Kim said. “So, I hope the voters get the message, we need to put the right leaders in office in Sacramento.”
The Post reached out to Democratic Assemblymember Corey Jackson who authored the legislation for comment, but have not heard back.
