We have data to ensure all kids can read, but laws get in the way

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OPINION — Since 1996’s Proposition 209, California has prohibited the consideration of race in public education, employment and contracting. While framed around fairness, the measure’s real-world effect has been to blindfold the state, creating a painful disconnect between the clearly visible systemic inequities and our legal ability to fix them.

We finally have an opportunity to remove those constraints and get serious about improving outcomes for students. Assembly Constitutional Amendment 7 (ACA 7), currently moving through the legislature, would untie the state’s hands and allow California to deploy targeted, proven educational resources directly to the students and communities that need them most.

This is not a question of student ability. Decades of rigorous research show that the disparities we see across our education system are not the result of differences in potential but instead reflect a systemic failure to distribute opportunity evenly.

The consequences of this broken design are entirely predictable in communities where the data shows persistent racial equity gaps: a third-grader who lacks the targeted support — like small-group reading, additional reading specialists, or family outreach — to master basic literacy or a high schooler whose school doesn’t offer enough seats in the A-G coursework required to apply to a California State University or University of California campus.

Only one in five Black kids in California are at grade level in math. Fewer than half of Latinx, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander kids in the state are reading at grade level.

The patterns in California’s data are consistent, devastating and decades old. The question is no longer whether these disparities exist, but whether we are willing to remove the legal handcuffs blocking us from fully addressing them.

Currently, Proposition 209 limits the extent to which the state can directly target support to where gaps are the greatest —approaches we know lead to increased reading proficiency, course completion, and college persistence.

As a result, policymakers and school leaders often rely on broader, more indirect approaches that may be well-intentioned but are frequently less targeted and less effective.

In any other sector, such misalignment would be difficult to justify. When healthcare data reveal that certain populations face inadequate care (e.g., white women and osteoporosis), providers do not rely on generalized solutions alone. They direct outreach, resources, and interventions toward those most affected to improve outcomes — it’s not ideological, it’s practical.

Yet California’s current education system creates a frustrating paradox: the state can see exactly where student support is lacking, but can’t fully respond in a correspondingly focused way. This gap between institutional knowledge and institutional action inflicts real, lasting consequences on students and families.

Our public education system carries a fundamental obligation to serve all students well. Parents expect their children to learn to read, to succeed in math, and to graduate prepared for what comes next.

Furthermore, the strength of California’s economy depends in no small part on whether our education system is producing the outcomes our workforce and communities require.

Proposals like ACA 7 are about whether the state has the tools to respond more directly to what the data already shows. This is not about quotas or guaranteed outcomes, but about whether California can act thoughtfully and strategically to improve results for students and the state.

There is a historic opportunity to untie our hands by passing ACA 7 and sending this decision to the voters. We know these gaps are not inevitable. And we know that more targeted, evidence-grounded approaches can help more students read, succeed in school, and graduate from college ready for life and career.

The question is whether we will choose to continue merely observing the problem or finally equip ourselves to address it.

Assemblymember Dr. Corey A. Jackson represents the 60th district in Riverside County and sits on the Assembly Higher Education Committee Dr. Christopher J. Nellum is Executive Director of EdTrust-West, a statewide organization committed to dismantling racial and economic barriers in the education system. Thuy Nguyen is a partner in Garcia Hernández Sawhney, LLP’s Education Law and Equity Leadership practice groups.