California's 'Dream Act' Becomes Law, but Affirmative-Action Measure Is Vetoed

The Chronicle of Higher Education
October 9, 2011
Josh Keller

Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. of California signed legislation on Saturday that will allow thousands of illegal immigrants who graduated from high school in California to receive state financial aid for college, but he vetoed another bill of interest to higher education that would have tried to allow public colleges to consider race in admissions.
Along with roughly a dozen other states, California already allows some illegal immigrants to pay less-expensive in-state tuition at public colleges. The new law, AB 131, known as the California Dream Act, will allow them to apply for Cal Grants, fee waivers at community colleges, and institutional financial aid at public universities, starting in 2013.

Full Story:
http://chronicle.com/article/Californias-Dream-Act/129330/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Brown weighs bill challenging ban on affirmative action

The Los Angeles Times
By Nicholas Riccardi and Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times
September 30, 2011

Reporting from Sacramento and Los Angeles -- In the next 10 days, Gov. Jerry Brown must decide whether to sign a bill that could put race and gender back into the admissions process at California's public universities 15 years after the state's voters banned affirmative action.The proposed law would allow the University of California and California State University systems to "consider" applicants' race, gender and household income to diversify student bodies. The author says he crafted it to avoid conflict with Proposition 209, the ballot measure voters passed in 1996 that prohibited preferential treatment of minority groups by the state.

Full Story: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-prop209-20110930,0,3072044,full.story

California moves toward reversal of Prop. 209

Pasadena Star-News
Beige Luciano-Adams, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/10/2011 07:02:58 AM PDT

PASADENA - While it may have changed face since the affirmative action debates of the 1990s, the battle for diversity in California's higher education system has intensified in recent years, taking on new urgency as the state struggles to get ahead of its deep fiscal maladies.
Since voters approved a constitutional amendment prohibiting the state from considering race, sex or ethnicity fifteen years ago, critics say minority enrollment at the California's best public universities has plummeted - even as the number of minority high school graduates rises.

Read more: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_18450827#ixzz1RpC5JbIG

Governor files legal opinion against ban on affirmative action

Los Angeles Times
July 8, 2011 5:59 pm

Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday added his voice in support of a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of California’s ban on racial affirmative action in public university admissions.
In a legal brief, Brown said that minorities face too high a barrier in efforts to overturn Proposition 209, which voters approved in 1996, because it is part of the state Constitution and not just a law or university policy. In addition, he noted a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said race could be considered in state college admissions if it did not involve quotas or carry predetermined weight in decisions.

Full Story: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/07/gov-brown-files-legal-opinion-against-ban-on-affirmative-action.html