As California goes, so goes the nation

Economic downsizing, the resurgence of unfounded racist theories of genetic inferiority, and right-wing posturing have undermined the political gains of the 1960s and 1970s, and have resulted in retrenchment that has seriously constrained the education of African Americans. Nowhere is this retrenchment more evident than in California. The Board of Regents' widely publicized decision to end affirmative action in hiring, student admissions and contracting at University of California (UC) system institutions (Lively, 1995b, 1995c); the recently passed anti-immigrant and anti-affirmative action initiatives, Proposition 187 and Proposition 209 (the latter being inaccurately dubbed the California Civil Rights Initiative or CCRI) (Fields,1997; Holding,1995; Schmidt,1996a,1996b); and the controversy over the Oakland School Board's recent "Ebonics resolution" are examples of this trend (Fields, 1997; Foster, 1997). So too are the less well-publicized legislative cuts on spending for programs that support the academic success of students of color at California's state universities and community colleges, a series of yearly tuition increases at public postsecondary institutions, and a recent court ruling upholding the use of a teacher test known to have an adverse impact on the number of Asian American, Latino, and African American candidates who enter the profession (Asimov, 1996: Burdman, 1996a; Jaschik, 1995; Lively, 1995a, 1995c, 1995e).

Bolstered by well-known African American neoconservatives like Shelby Steele and Thomas Sowell and less well-known ones like Ward Connerly, the businessman who shepherded both the Regents' decision and Proposition 209 to fruition (Lively, 1995d: Neumann, 1997), the forces of the Radical Right have cloaked their attacks on Californians of color in overworked cliches such as "family values," "back to basics," and "accountability." They have inveighed against bilingual education, Afrocentric curricula, multicultural education and outcome-based education. Surprisingly, however, all of these events, and the meteoric rise of the state's politically and culturally reactionary forces, have occurred at the same time that students of color have come to constitute the majority of students in California's public schools. Celebrations of diversity and claims of equality of opportunity notwithstanding, the economic, health, educational, and other indicators of the well-being of California's citizens, especially its citizens of African American ancestry, are grim.

California, the prototype of the American criminal justice system, has the nation's largest prison system and the largest number of prisoners on death row (Lively, 1994b). Despite the state's popular reputation as a haven for academic liberalism, freedom, and opportunity, its 1995 state prison budget exceeded that for education. Whereas rural communities in California once competed to become sites for state universities, they now vie for prisons to be located in or near their communities. But what, readers might ask, do prisons and information on prison-building rates have to do with education, specifically the education of African Americans in California? The data reveal stark and frightening conclusions: African American males constitute less than 5% of California's total popula

tion, yet they comprise 35% of its prison inmate population. More African American men are incarcerated in California than are enrolled in its colleges and universities statewide.

A five-year state-sponsored study by the Commission on the Status of the African American Male painted a bleak portrait of the educational, health, and economic wellbeing of African American men in California compared to men of other races and ethnic groups (Lucas, 1997). The Commission found that although African American men comprise 3.7% of the state's population, their unemployment rate is 13.1%, much larger than the 7.5% figure for all males in the state. Moreover, African American males living in California earn less than White, Latino, and Asian American males: 23% of single White California males over the age of 25 earn $15,000 or less compared to 38% of African American males, and the latter hold only 2.3% of executive, administrative, and managerial jobs in the state's private sector. The dropout rate for California's African American male population is 30%-three times that of White and Asian male Californians. Black males also score lower on standardized tests and have the lowest graduation rate of any group statewide.

What is happening with California's African American males at one end of the lifespan spectrum must be put into perspective with information of equally disparaging portent at the other. Of the approximately 5.5 million students in California's public schools, the largest number of students of any state in the nation, only 8.8%, or slightly less than half a million, are African American (Craig, 1997). With 59% students of color, up from 51% in 1991, the state's burgeoning enrollment is more diverse and more urban than that of nearly any other state. In 1997, one out of every two students in California attended a school in which no single ethnic group made up more than half of that school's student body. Eighty-two percent attend schools in districts classified as urban, suburban, or as large towns. Almost a quarter are poor, and 1.2 million are LEP (Limited-English-Proficent) students. By comparison, there are just under 12,000 African American teachers in the state, a number representing only 5.1% of all its teachers (California Department of Educational Statistics, 1995,1996; Craig, 1997). Although a great deal of variation can be found in the number of African American students who attend particular school districts, rarely does the percentage of African American teachers in a California school match the percentage of African American students.l

Sadly but predictably, African American students do not fare well in California's public schools. On all indicators, from achievement to dropout, suspensions to referrals, gifted/talented placement to special education, they fare badly. In San Francisco, 49% of all African American students score in the lowest quartile on districtwide tests of reading and mathematics achievement (Wagner, 1996). In Oakland, African American students' median grade point average is 1.8 on a 4.0 scale, the lowest of any ethnic or racial group (Fields, 1997). African American students make up 71% of Oakland's students in special education classes but comprise only 37% of those in gifted and talented programs. They make up 64% of Oakland district students retained each year and represent 80% of all its suspended students. In the West Contra Costa County School District, composed of schools in the bay area city of Richmond and six surrounding small towns, a fifth of its

31,348 student body was suspended during the 1993-94 school year (Olszewski, 1995). That year, the district issued 12,869 suspensions, most of them involving students suspended more than once, most for defying authority or disrupting school. Again predictably, most (56%) were issued to African American students, even though they comprise only 35% of the students enrolled. By contrast, only 16% of the West Contra Costa County district's suspended were White, yet Whites comprise 25.5% of the district's students. The discriminatory treatment of African Americans in the public schools has historic roots in California. Although not codified in the first state school laws, the first schools for African Americans in the state-established in San Francisco in 1854-were segregated (Wollenberg, 1976). According to Wollenberg, segregated schools were a common practice in California but not a legal one until the 1874 State Supreme Court's ruling in Ward v. Flood established the principle of separate-but-equal in California law. Although references to race were removed from the state school code in 1880, it was not until 1947 that the California Court officially ruled against segregated schools. By that time, largely as the result of discriminatory housing policies, de facto segregation had supplanted de jure segregation. As early as 1939, Los Angeles had nine predominantly African American schools. This number increased dramatically following World War II, a period of massive migration to southern California (Wollenberg, 1976). Indeed, de facto segregated schools were common in the San Francisco Bay Area well into the 1960s, despite vigorous protests from African American parents about the overcrowded, older, and understaffed conditions of the city's de facto Black schools (Lemke-Santangelo, 1996).

Despite its relative affluence-only 11 states have higher per-capita income or a higher median income-California trails well behind most other states in public school spending. In 1994, for example, California spent only $4,307 per student, more than $1,000 less than the national average and nearly $3,000 less than the per-student expenditure in New York, another major industrial state (Craig, 1997). Add to this not a movement to increase the amount spent on public education, but Proposition 13, the legislation that capped local property taxes in 1978. This legislation, passed by more than 60% of the state's voters, seriously eroded the financial resources available to California's public schools. To many, it was a sign that state politicians, abetted by a voting public comprised primarily of older, White citizens, were turning their backs on the future generation of California's schoolchildren, increasing numbers of whom are children of color. The result: In 1994, California's public school library system ranked 50th in the nation in the ratio of books and librarians to students; indeed, that same year more than one-third of California's public school libraries lacked even a full- or part-time librarian (Craig, 1997). In 1995, Craig reports, the state that is home to computer giants Apple, Intel, and Hewlett-Packard ranked 43rd among all the states in the number of computers available to students. Craig's reporting of statewide data further notes that in 1996, the average class size in California's public schools was over 30, the highest in the nation.

A number of states with demographics similar to California's do a much better job of providing equity to their students of color. According to Craig, for example, Tennessee and New York are two states in which the percentages of African American students in Advanced Placement courses and gifted and talented programs parallel their percentages in the student population. Texas has similar percentages of poor and African American students compared to California, and a higher percentage of Latino students; yet poor African American and Latino students perform significantly better on national standardized tests than similar students in California. Moreover, 44% of Texas fourth graders in poor urban schools, which are predominantly African American and Latino, scored at the basic level or above on the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Proficiency (NAEP) mathematics assessment test, compared to only 27% in California. Latino fourth

graders from Texas also scored significantly higher than their peers in California. Lastly, compared to all other states, California still has a lower percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds who possess a high school credential (Craig, 1997).

California has made progress in some areas, however. Its statewide K-12 dropout rate has been cut in half (Craig, 1997). The number of students of all races and ethnicities who earn passing grades on Advanced Placement examinations stands currently at 12%, triple that since 1984; and between 1988 and 1994, the number of high school students taking courses of study required for admission to the state's public universities increased by 6% (Craig, 1997). Nonetheless, the percentage of California students going to college has not kept pace with this progress in more rigorous course-taking, largely because rising tuition and budget cuts at state institutions have prevented many students from enrolling in college. Enrollment in the state university system has dropped by 14% (Burdman, 1996b; Craig, 1997; Lively, 1994a). Moreover, half of all incoming freshmen require remedial coursework in mathematics or English (Craig, 1997).

Some of these achievements are due to the omnibus California Reform Act of 1983, which addressed several educational issues and included provisions calling for more homework, a longer school year, the establishment of charter schools, and a more stringent course of study for high school students. The reform act also mandated new curriculum frameworks, subject matter standards, and a statewide performance-based assessment program. Unfortunately, the implementation of the frameworks has been uneven, and the California Learning Assessment System, first administered in 1993, was challenged by conservative groups from Orange County and subsequently vetoed by Governor Pete Wilson in October 1994 (Craig, 1997). Additionally, as part of a campaign to improve reading achievement, an increase in the state education budget was approved in 1996. This latter initiative enabled primary grades K-3 to reduce their class sizes from 30 to 20, and resulted in a demand for 20,000 new teachers. However, the massive hiring of teachers, many not fully credentialed, to implement this program added to the already large number of uncertified teachers in the state, which already has the largest number in the nation. Despite these changes, it remains to be seen whether or not the above-noted reforms will result in better achievement for California's African American students, or if they will merely be cosmetic structural changes that yield little improvement in the scholastic achievement of Black pupils.

One of the important challenges facing African Americans in California is that their concerns are often slighted in a state where discussions of diversity and multiculturalism focus most frequently on issues of bilingualism and immigration-issues that more directly impinge on the well-being and progress of minorities of color other than African Americans. Moreover, in areas where communities of color are fragmented, as in California, it is easier for those who wish to turn back the civil rights gains forged primarily by African Americans in the 1960s and 1970s to do so. Nonetheless, some Californians, refusing to accept the status quo or to be divided along racial and ethnic lines, are organizing to improve education for African American and other citizens of color in the state. For example, residents of Sausalito, a wealthy predominantly White community in southern California, and Marin City, a majority African American unincorporated area of Marin County, recently united to form Project Homecoming, an effort to recall the entire fivemember school board (Fimrite, 1997). The group blames the substandard performance of 248 of the district's students, 90% of whom are students of color and 78% of whom are African American, on this board. They hold it accountable as well for the decision of many parents, mostly White ones, to send their children to private schools. The problem in the Sausalito School District, they contend, is not one of money. As they point out, the district spends an average of $11,200 per student, nearly three times more than the state

average of $4,200, much of which is used to fund programs for the 30% of students in the district who are assigned to special education. Moreover, despite these expenditures, African American students still perform well below the 50th percentile on standardized tests, the lowest in Marin County and among the lowest in the state. In other developments, claiming that enrollments of women and people of color have already declined in graduate programs in engineering, medicine, law and business at California's state-supported institutions of higher education, several legal advocacy groups, including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the California Women's Law Center, and other equal rights advocate groups, have filed two complaints with the federal government since the UC Regents' anti-affirmative action ruling in 1995 ("Appeals Court," 1997; Freedberg, 1997). Specifically, these groups allege that the Regents' policy prohibiting consideration of race/ ethnicity and gender in admissions decisions violates civil rights statutes. The second complaint maintains that U.S. Department of Education regulations prohibit not only intentional discrimination but any admissions policies that have a discriminatory effect on women or people of color. Moreover, several of the University of California system's top administrators continue to express their dissatisfaction with the Board of Regents' decision (Burdman, 1997), and UC students at various campuses have actively and repeatedly demonstrated to express their continuing dissatisfaction with the Board's actions (Harris, 1997; Lee, 1997). Thus, the fight begun more than one hundred years ago continues, and will probably continue well into the coming century, in California as in the rest of the nation.

This brief examination of historic and contemporary factors is intended to serve as a backdrop to the eight articles that comprise this special issue. In planning this issue, coguest editor Garrett Duncan and I have tried to select articles that would illuminate some of the educational challenges facing African Americans in California-and, by extension, the United States-and simultaneously highlight some of the successes achieved despite the formidable obstacles. We wish to thank our colleagues for their excellent contributions to this issue, and extend our deepest appreciation to JNE Editor-in-Chief Dr. Sylvia T. Johnson and Associate Editor Ms. D. Kamili Anderson for their support, advice, and editorial assistance.

'In the San Francisco Unified School District, for example, approximately 62,150 pupils, or 18.1%, are African American. However, of that district's approximate 2,800 teachers, only 10% are African American. By comparison, 53% or 28,000 of the students in the nearby Oakland Unified School District are African American, yet the number of African American teachers again falls short, only 34%. The Pomona Unified School District to the south is one of the rare exceptions to this rule. Located just 30 miles outside of the city of Los Angeles, this community boasts an African American student population of 12% and an African American teacher population of 19%.

REFERENCES

Appeals court asked to rehear Prop. 209 case. (1997, April 23). San Francisco Chronicle, p. C2. Asimov, N. (1996, September 19). State test upheld for teachers: Minority groups called it biased. San Francisco Chronicle, p. Al.

Burdman, P. (1996a, July 13). Community colleges alter program: Minority efforts can't seem to exclude anyone, settlement says. San Francisco Chronicle, p. A13. Burdman, P. (1996b, November 15). UC budget approved-Fee raise looms: Tuition may be 4 times what it was in '90. San Francisco Chronicle, p. B2. Burdman, P. (1997, April 25). Chancellors from UC join affirmative action ad: Connerly criticizes display of support. San Francisco Chronicle, p. A19. California Department of Education, Educational Demographics Unit. (1995). Research, evaluation, and technology: Public school summary statistics [On-line]. Available: http:/ /goldmine.cde.ca.gov / ftpbranch / retdiv / demo / FACTS.html#ELEVEN California Department of Education, Educational Demographics Unit. (1996). Enrollment in California public schools by district and by ethnic group, October 1996 [On-line]. Available: http:/ / goldmine.cde.ca.gov / ftpbranch / retdiv / demo / reports / enrdist/ totalenr.htm

Craig, J. D. (1997). Quality counts: A report card on the condition of public educationCalifornia [On- Available: http://www.edweek.org/qc/states/ca.htm

Fields, C. D. (1997, January 23). Ebonics 101: What have we learned? Black Issues in Higher Education, pp. 19-21, 24-28.

Fimrite, P. (1997, April 25). Sausalito's schools well-funded, but failing: Inner-city problems money can't fix. San Francisco Chronicle, p. Al.

Foster, M. (1997, Winter). Ebonics and all that jazz; Cutting through the politics of linguistics, education and race. The Quarterly of the National Writing Project, 19(1), 7-8, 10-12. Freedberg, L. (1997, March 20). Complaint over UC's race policy: Legal groups say rules violate civil rights. San Francisco Chronicle, p. A15.

Harris, S. A. (1997, April 29). UC students storm Sproul Hall in Prop. 209 protest: 40 lock themselves in building; cops use pepper spray, batons, arrest two. San Francisco Chronicle, p. A4. Holding, R. (1995, November 21). Prop. 187 ruled mostly illegal: State immigration measure said to conflict with federal powers. San Francisco Chronicle, p. Al.

Jaschik, S. (1995, May 5). California community college scales back affirmative action. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A31.

Lee, Henry K. (1997, April 29). Violent protest at Cal: Campus cops spray, hit UC students opposing Prop. 209. San Francisco Chronicle, p. A13.

Lemke-Santangelo, G. (1996). Abiding courage: African American migrant women in the East Bay community. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

Lively, K. (1994a, January 12). Enrollment plummets at California public colleges. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A24.

Lively, K. (1994b, June 29). Competition between prisons and colleges: Educators fear anticrime movement will mean more money for corrections, less for colleges. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A22.

Lively, K. (1995a, March 31). Ready or not: California aims to reduce need for remedial instruction at 4-year colleges. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A23.

Lively, K. (1995b, June 9). A jolt from Sacramento: Governor Wilson asks California's colleges to end affirmative-action policies. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A25.

Lively, K. (1995c, July 28). University of California ends race-based hirings, admissions: In contentious meeting marked by applause and hissing, board of regents eliminates affirmative-action programs. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A26.

Lively, K. (1995d, July 28). Ward Connerly: Man behind California proposal has felt racism s sting. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A27.

Lively, K. (1995e, October 6). California's 2-year colleges may adjust affirmative action. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A31.

Lucas, G. (1997, March 20). Grim state report on Black males: Men of other races fare better, study says. San Francisco Chronicle, p. A16.

Olszewski, L. (1995, July 10). Some parents see bias in school suspension rate: West Contra Costa policy under fire. San Francisco Chronicle, p. Al. Neumann, A. L. (1997, May). "I am not African-American." San Francisco Focus, pp. 58-61, 124-126.

Schmidt, P. (1996a, October 25). An end to affirmative action in California, Californians prepare to vote. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A32.

Schmidt, P. (1996b, November 15). California vote to ban racial preferences sparks suits, protests. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A35.

Wagner, V. (1996, August 15). Mixed math test results leading S.F. district to rethink methods: Students in city's elementary, high schools lose ground on basic skills test; Superintendent cites new curriculum. San Francisco Examiner, p. A4.

Wollenberg, C. M. (1976). With all deliberate speed: Segregation and exclusion in California schools, 1855-1975. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Michele Foster

The Claremont Graduate School

Copyright Howard University Spring 1996
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