ABSTRACT

The core White, older demographic base of the Republican Party is giving way to a multicultural, younger, and urban-based demographic favoring Democrat. This trend is well along in California. For this older, White Republican voter, support for education exists in principle when the beneficiaries of tax-supported education could be their grandchildren or their neighbors’ children. They do not want to see their tax dollars spent on students of color—other people’s children. Two California state propositions craftily avoided the pitfalls of overt racism and set in motion the march toward privatization. In 1978, state voters passed Proposition 13, which limited property taxes to 1 percent of the assessed value of a property. If Proposition 209 and the disproportionate budget cuts to public higher education were meant to restrict minority enrollment, they have backfired. Whatever the motives were for disproportionate budget cuts, proportions of White students in overall enrollment were negatively impacted.