According to education advocates, a California law protecting against discrimination negatively impacts low-income students from minority groups who wish to attend quality US universities. The law, which prohibits official travel to states considered discriminatory based on sexual orientation or gender identity, hinders tours by prospective students to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic-serving institutions nationwide.
The ongoing conflict exposes the escalating "culture wars" in the US and raises concerns about a new obstacle to social mobility. Bill 1887, enacted by the California assembly in 2017, has been extended repeatedly and currently applies to 23 states.
According to Yasmin Delahoussaye, director of the Educating Students Together College Access Program, a non-profit organization that arranges tours, this development eliminates any chance to expose students to some of the nation's top-tier schools. "It's extremely frustrating for those of us working to encourage black students to transfer," she said. "HBCUs are concentrated in those southern 'red' states we cannot travel to."
As a result of the bans, which compelled her to reschedule one planned tour four times from Louisiana to Georgia and then Virginia before ultimately ending up in Maryland, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania, where there are fewer and more costly HBCUs, she anticipates that at least 2,000 fewer students will take tours this year.
The legislation jeopardizes recent efforts to increase access to tertiary education for economically disadvantaged black students, including a groundbreaking 2015 agreement that grants students with good academic grades in California's community colleges automatic admission to 39 of the country's HBCUs.
Education advocates warn that thousands of low-income students from minority groups in California face reduced chances of gaining degrees at good US universities because of a state law designed to protect against discrimination. Bill 1887 was passed in the California assembly in 2017 to outlaw official travel to states it considers discriminatory based on sexual orientation or gender identity, but now applies to 23 states. College and non-profit staff say California’s intensifying travel bans undermine tours by prospective students to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic-serving institutions across the country and is setting back recent efforts to improve access to tertiary education for poorer black students. The ban forbids the use of state funds for campus tours essential to motivating students to apply and risks being a barrier to social mobility.
