Equal Opportunity For All! Voters in Washington have repeatedly opposed racial quotas and preferential treatment, we can’t let legislators circumvent voters’ will. Below is a list of bills that we opposed in the past.
I-1000 – Repeal I-200
SB 6406 & HB 1158 – Repeal I-200
We, Asian Americans strongly oppose SB6406!
Background on I-200 from Ballotpedia:
The Washington Civil Rights Initiative, also known as Initiative 200, was on the November 3, 1998, ballot in Washington as an Initiative to the Legislature, where it was approved. The measure prohibited public institutions from discriminating or granting preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. Voters approved the amendment by over 300,000 votes, making Washington the second state to enact such a measure. The approved ballot measure added a new section (RCW 49.60.400) to Law Against Discrimination (LAD), chapter 49.60 of Washington’s state code. RCW 49.60.400 , known and cited as the Washington State Civil Rights Act , states “Discrimination, preferential treatment prohibited.”
On January 16, 2018, several state senators ( Chase, Hasegawa, Saldaña, McCoy, Wellman, Keiser, Kuderer ) quietly introduced SB 6406 to repeal “the 1998 Initiative 200 (I-200) language regarding discrimination and preferential treatment in the operation of public employment, education, or contracting.” (see SB 6406 senate bill report)
State House representative Santos introduced a bill HB 2822 in 2016, wanted to repeal I-200. The bill was dead on arrival. She re-introduced a similar bill, HB 1158, in 2017.
President Lyndon Johnson (D) signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a landmark piece of legislation that “prohibited discrimination against any individual based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. ” More than 50 year later, some of our elected senators betrayed our trust, wanted to quietly throw out the law that provides equal protection to every one in this state. We can’t let that happen!
If you also oppose SB 6406, please let more people know about this bill. Please also contact your district senators, house representatives, and let them know that you oppose SB6406.
More in-depth discussions on SB 6406 can be found on our SB 6406 page.
SB 6508 , HB 2927,
SB 6508 and HB 2927 are companion bills “concerning highly capable students”. There are some troubling sections (see below) in the two bills that clearly promote preferential treatment over equal treatment.
- The bills state “The procedures for identifying the most highly capable students must prioritize equitable identification of low-income students as required by RCW 28A.185.020;” We support helping low income students. However, we want all students are treated equally. No preferential treatment based on race. (Note: They quietly passed EHB 2242 in less than two days during a special session in 2017, and added “District practices for identifying the most highly capable students must prioritize equitable identification of low-income students.” to RCW 28A.185.020. We did not even have a chance to fight against it. We need to amend the law to make sure no preferential treatment based on race is allowed.)
- The bills state “Districts must use multiple objective criteria to identify students who are among the most highly capable. Multiple pathways for qualifications must be available and no single criteria may eliminate a student from identification;” We want equal, objective standard, no preferential treatment, not black box operation.
- The bills state “Highly capable selection decisions must be based on consideration of criteria benchmarked on local norms, but local norms may not be used as a more restrictive criteria than national norms at the same percentile;” We want no racial quota of any kind.
If you oppose this two bills, please let more people know about the bills. Please also contact your senator and house representatives, and let them know that you oppose the two bills. You can also use online contact form for SB 6508 and HB 2927 .
More in-depth discussions on the two bills can we found on our SB 6508 & HB 2927 page.
Watch Dr. Donna Ford talked about accepting low income (Black and Hispanic by her definition) students with IQ score of 115, while high income (White, Asian, and Indian by her definition) students need to score at least 140 to get in in this video from her meeting with Northshore School District on Gifted program. In the same video, Dr. Ford also talked about 80% rule, and applying 17% cap on Asian students in Gifted program. Apparently NSD does not see anything wrong with Dr. Ford’s comments, and states on their website that “The new eligibility process implemented by Northshore School District is an important step in equity and opportunity for all students. Previous structures for eligibility have led to a program demographic that does not represent our Northshore population. Changes in assessment structure, administration protocols and tools for measuring potential and achievement are necessary and imperative. This work, led by Dr. Donna Ford of Vanderbilt University, has resulted in the implementation of universal screening, school day assessment schedules, and implementation of the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test and Torrance Test of Creative Thinking.