Never-before-released data from the federal government has shed new light on the debt burden of low-income families in California. More than 13,500 low-income students attending California’s two public university systems had parents take out federal loans on their behalf in recent years, according to a CalMatters analysis of figures released by the U.S. Department of Education last week for every college in the nation. The numbers show how much parents borrow in federal loans for their student...

A stinging report issued by California’s state auditor today slams the University of California for a culture of privileging wealth and access over merit in its admissions process, galvanizing concern that talented low-income students and students of color are displaced by less qualified but better connected students. The audit report found that four UC campuses “unfairly admitted 64 applicants based on their personal or family connections to donors and university staff” between 2013–14 through...

Is affirmative action “the enemy of white people who are contractors and Americans of Asian descent who are trying to get into the University of California at Berkeley,” as one influential critic called it? Or is neglecting race as a factor in admissions denying the reality that many students endure racism as an impediment to academic progress? Rising from the heat of those passions are complicated data points that both backers and opponents of Proposition 16 — the November ballot item that ask...

Come November, California voters will determine the fate of affirmative action… again. What they decide will have a huge impact on higher education. In 1996, voters passed Proposition 209, banning public agencies from considering race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in hiring, admissions and contracting. This year, if Proposition 16 passes, it will undo the ban on affirmative action. Proponents say doing so could greatly affect the ethnic diversity of faculty at public colleges and ...