Passing Proposition 16 will align California with the rest of the country

By Myrna Castrejon, President & CEO, California Charter Schools Association

We are living in extraordinary times that are at once challenging the way we live and work in response to the public health crisis that COVID-19 poses, but also how we treat and see each other in the wake of a national outcry for social justice and civil rights. How we navigate each of these challenges can forever transform our daily lives, potentially for the better, if we take full advantage of the choices before us. As diverse communities have come together to demand an end to systems that target, oppress and deny equality in education and career opportunities for people of color, we have an opportunity to rejoin the community of states where providing systemic supports in the service of equity if Proposition 16 (Prop 16) is passed in November.

When I look back on my life, race conscious policies and programs, commonly referred to as Affirmative Action, unlocked foundational opportunities for me as a young woman in the early 1980s — an immigrant person of color, and an English learner. From the Pell Grants and work study programs that enabled me to pay for college when my parents couldn’t, to the Lilly Foundation’s Minority Opportunity Fellowship that supported my Masters and PhD studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, these programs set the foundation for the work I do today at the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) — I am forever grateful for Affirmative Action’s role in illuminating these opportunities and developing the potential I had as a young woman.

That changed with Proposition 209, which in 1996 eliminated Affirmative Action and prohibited state institutions from considering race, nationality, and sex in education and hiring, ignoring the racism, sexism and white privilege embedded within our social systems and structures, while assuming that the systems would self-correct and representation would be fair. The past 24 years have proven that assumption wrong.

This November 3, we have the opportunity to rectify the miscalculation of Prop 209 by supporting Prop 16, increasing equal opportunities for all by reinstating Affirmative Action in California for public education, public contracts, and public jobs as allowable considerations, not quotas.

CCSA’s Board unanimously endorsed Prop 16 for several key reasons.

Charter schools, which serve a high proportion of Black and Latinx students, are committed to equity, opportunity and advancing issues of social justice and civil rights that level the playing field for our most vulnerable communities; our public charter schools have a well-established record of providing California’s historically underserved students with the high-quality public education they deserve.

Based on the results of 2019 research CCSA commissioned, Charting the Course to Equity: K-12 Leaders of Color & Student Success, we learned that the overall performance of students of color as measured by academics, college-going indicators, and suspension rates improved when they attend a public school led by an educator of color. The findings suggest that hiring practices and representation matter in the classroom.

California is a majority-minority state and the fifth largest economy in the world. However, the disparity in job and educational opportunities for communities of color is undeniable.

With forty-two states across the U.S. considering gender, race, and ethnicity when making decisions about government contracts, college admissions and job opportunities, it is time for California to align with the rest of the country.

To learn more about Proposition 16 visit: www.voteyesonprop16.org. You can learn more about California’s nonprofit charter schools by following CCSA on Twitter @CALcharters.

Myrna Castrejon is President & CEO of the California Charter Schools Association