Home »
News &
Events » News Archive » 2000 Press Releases
ACLU letter to legislators and Gov. Bush regarding One Florida Initiative
February 7, 2000
Senator Jack Latvala
Co-Chair, Joint Select Committee on the One Florida Task Force
300 Senate Office Building
404 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399 ? 1100
Representative Jerry Maygarden
Co-Chair, Joint Select Committee on the One Florida Task Force
House Office Building
402 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399 - 1300
Dear Sen. Latvala and Rep. Maygarden,
News accounts of the first hearing your Task Force held in Tampa on January 28 indicated that you and several members of the Task Force were frustrated in your desire to hear specific proposals to amend the Governor's Executive Order "One Florida Initiative."
I would like to accommodate the request for specific proposals. However, I want to explain the views and involvement of the American Civil Liberties Union in the effort to achieve racial and gender equality in America and on the issue of affirmative action.
The American Civil Liberties Union has for many years worked in both the legal and legislative arenas in support of civil rights remedies including affirmative action.
Introduction
It is our view that the Governor's plan is a short-term response to an immediate political problem. It is not a long-term formula to achieve gender equity and racial justice as well as the full integration of Florida's diverse population.
In preparing recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature, I hope that the Task Force will put the debate over affirmative action in proper historical context. It is essential to remember that women and minorities have been victims of official discrimination for centuries before the civil rights gains of the 20th Century. And, although we have come a long way toward guaranteeing equal opportunity for all, a look at plain facts, including continuing wage and unemployment disparities, proves that discrimination on the basis of race and gender has not yet been eliminated.
Affirmative action is only one method, and not a perfect method, of fighting a multifaceted, difficult problem. While no measure can eliminate discrimination entirely, the ACLU believes that affirmative action is a fair and moral remedy for the institutionalized race and gender discrimination that continues to characterize American society. Affirmative action must be used on a temporary basis, where appropriate, if we are serious about achieving an equitable society.
While the legal edifice of discrimination is gone, and the participation of minorities and women in the life of the nation has increased substantially, stark inequalities remain. For example, women earn just 55 to 75 percent of men's salaries.
Many Hispanic and Asian workers face bias because they look or sound "foreign," according to a report published by the federal General Accounting Office. Stricter immigration laws have also triggered discrimination by employers, who, presuming that Hispanics or Asian-Americans may be illegal aliens, often refuse to hire them.
The face of poverty is disproportionately female and nonwhite. For example, 70 percent of black women hold "typically female," low wage jobs.
One third of all African-American and one fourth of all Hispanic families live in poverty, compared to one tenth of white families. Native Americans remain the most impoverished minority in North America. Their communities are plagued with disproportionately high rates of unemployment, infant mortality, alcoholism and suicide.
The unemployment rate for racial minorities is double that of whites. One in four African-American males is in prison, on parole or on probation -- more than are in college.
In many respects, America is two separate societies ? precisely the condition about which the Kerner Commission of three decades ago warned. In Florida, we may be living in three or four separate societies. It is in this stark context that the Governor's One Florida Initiative must be judged.
One Florida Initiative -- Education proposals
The essential elements of this part of the Governor's Executive Order One Florida Initiative is the replacement of affirmative action policies (by which race is one factor that is taken into account in college admissions) with a guarantee of admission to some state university for the top 20% of high school seniors. The Initiative also includes a number of aid programs for students and incentives for teachers.
1. Affirmative action is a defensible plan to ensure diversity in Florida's institutions of higher education.
Gov. Bush has called affirmative action "legally suspect." This judgment may be premature. University presidents across the country have stressed that affirmative action is necessary to ensure that young people will graduate prepared to function in our diverse society. For example, Lee Bollinger, President of the University of Michigan, has said that affirmative action programs are necessary to provide the University with the ability "to bring together students from a wide array of backgrounds to create the richest possible environment for education and learning."
The elimination of affirmative action in higher education, if the result is the reduction in the minority student population at Florida universities, sentences students to an education devoid of the rich multitude of perspectives and opinions that is necessary to build a tolerant society and success in America's diverse workplace. We need only look to Texas, California and Washington immediately following the ban on affirmative action policies in those states (particularly in the more elite institutions such as the University of Texas and the University of California at Berkeley) to see evidence of the reduction in the minority student population resulting from the elimination of affirmative action in admissions.
Also, there should be no thought that an affirmative action admissions policy is a benefit for minority students only. There is now abundant evidence that both majority students and minority students significantly benefit both socially and educationally from a racially and ethnically diverse educational environment. (See William Bowen and Derek Bok, The Shape of the River; The Long Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions, Princeton University Press, 1998.)
It is troubling that, late last year, both the Governor's office and the Florida Board of Regents reported that while 2,000 minority students were admitted to Florida state universities for the 1999 ? 2000 academic year under current affirmative action, somewhere between 400 to 1,000 minorities would have been admitted under the Initiative's plan to guarantee admission to the top 20% of high school graduates -- a net decline of 800 to 1,600 students or 40%.
2. One Florida Initiative must ensure that Florida's universities will not become de facto segregated.
The Governor's goal of ensuring diversity in Florida's colleges and universities is admirable. The plan, however, does not guarantee which university the students would attend. In order to avoid the de facto segregation of particular Florida colleges, admissions policies will need to be developed that, in effect, take race into account, though indirectly, by utilizing factors that correlate strongly with race. These include factors such as socioeconomic status, the applicant's residency, and the demographics of the applicant's high school.
3. One Florida Initiative must ensure that an equitable percentage of minorities make up the talented 20%.
a) Adequate resources must be focused on the 65 public schools that have been graded D or F in order to prepare minority students for college. The minority population in those schools averages 72%. The most effective investment to prepare students who attend such schools would be the allocation of sufficient resources to reduce class size in order to provide for more individualized attention. Resources are also needed to create incentives for the best teachers to transfer to these schools.
b) The inequity in the availability of Advanced Placement courses must be addressed. The lack of access to AP classes is a serious denial of equal educational opportunity. Aside from the fact that AP courses provide students with an opportunity for greater intellectual development, completion of AP courses usually provides students with advantages with regard to college admissions. However, according to the Florida Department of Education, students attending D and F graded schools, who are disproportionately minority students, are four and five times less likely to be enrolled in Advanced Placement classes. In fact, the Department reports that 25 of Florida's 67 school districts offer no AP classes at all.
One Florida Initiative -- Contracting Reforms
The essential element in this portion of the One Florida Initiative is the elimination of affirmative action contracting and set-aside programs by state government. Under the One Florida Initiative, state purchasing agents who are now civil servants would become political appointees accountable to the Governor, presumably to make the Governor accountable for fulfilling his pledge to increase state contracts with minority firms and ensure that women and minorities get a fair share of state contracts.
It is clear that there has been precious little action in the state's affirmative action contracting program. While there have been conflicting reports from the Bush Administration, it appears that in 1998 ? 1999, the State of Florida entered into $257 million worth of contracts with minority and women-owned firms. This amounts to only 1.8% of the $12 billion in state contracts.
This is, as the Governor's Executive Order pronounced, "a relatively tiny fragment of spending with minority businesses," but though this is a disturbing record, One Florida Initiative proposes to replace affirmative action contracting and set-aside programs with little more than a pledge to do better during the term of office of the current Governor -- and with no enforcement mechanism.
It is hard to conceive of circumstances in which our Legislature would enact public policies, especially policies designed to achieve racial and gender equity, based on little more than a pledge, even a genuinely sincere pledge.
At the very least, the State must set goals for an equitable percentage of minority contracts and a timetable for achieving those goals. Perhaps most importantly, the State must create remedies when achievement falls so far below the goals that are set.
Conclusion
In the 1940s and 50s, the G.I. Bill of Rights gave World War II veterans (the vast majority of whom were white men) various educational and economic benefits, including preference when they applied for certain available civil service jobs. These benefits acknowledged the disadvantages many veterans had endured and applied to all veterans regardless of whether they had enlisted or been drafted, seen combat or not or been economically disadvantaged by their military service or not. Veterans of various wars fought by the U.S. still receive special benefits. The national consensus has been that, for a certain period of time, veterans should receive assistance in reconstructing their civilian lives in order to compete on an equal basis with people who did not serve.
Preferential treatment in addition to veteran's preferences is nothing new in the United States. Universities often give admission preference to the children of alumni, or to out of state students. One has to ask why is "affirmative action" to promote geographic diversity acceptable, but affirmative action to promote racial and sexual equality not?
It is not yet time to turn our back on affirmative action programs designed to help make America fulfill its promise of racial and gender equality. In a 1996 commencement address, retired Gen. Colin L. Powell told graduates of Bowie State University that the United States needs to maintain its commitment to affirmative action programs.
"Some people say we have a color-blind society," Powell said in his commencement address to the historically black university. "But it's not yet. Some people say we have a level playing field, but we don't yet. Some say all you have to do is pull yourself up by the bootstraps, but there are too many people who don't have boots, let alone straps."
It is the view of the American Civil Liberties Union that it is premature to abandon affirmative action programs as a strategy to achieve racial and gender equity. I hope the Task Force will give serious consideration to the proposed changes contained in this memorandum, and will recommend these alterations to the Governor.
Sincerely,
Howard Simon
Executive Director
American Civil Liberties Union of Florida
cc: Task Force Members
Gov. Jeb Bush
