Number Crunching: APAs and the 2000 Census (Feature) Community Mourns Sudden Death of APA Actress (in National News) Chang-Lin Tien, UC Berkeley Chancellor and Scientist Dies (in Bay Area News) Ultimate Diversions: Inside the Twilight Zone (in Business) Tuaolo Emerges from the NFL Closet (in Sports) Xinran: The Voice of the Good Women of China (in A&E) Emil Amok: Bleeding Orange and Black (in Opinion)

Master Plan Revamp Under Pressure from Berkeley Activists

By Samantha Kiyomi Witt
Special to AsianWeek

Governor Gray Davis recently announced California’s economy to be fifth strongest in the world. California’s public higher education school system is a driving force in preparing resident youth to support such a thriving economy. For the state’s economy to continue to flourish, California’s school systems must continue to support a comprehensive and prosperous educational system.

The Master Plan for Education, drafted in 1960 by the legislature, was designed to ensure that the educational system in California met the needs of its growing population. The Master Plan’s two primary goals are "to provide every family with the information, resources, services and support it needs to give every child the best possible start in life and in school; and to provide every public school, college and university with the resources and authority necessary to ensure that every student receives a rigorous, quality education that prepares him or her to become a self-initiating, self-sustaining learner for the rest of his or her life."

National Civil Rights Rally to Defend Affirmative Action & Integration, and Fight for Equality, Cincinnati, Ohio, Oct. 23, 2001. Photo courtesy of BAMN.

The dynamics of California’s population are different than they were 32 years ago. Due to discoveries in science and technology, education has moved from the blackboard to the Internet and beyond. Because of this constant change, the Master Plan is reviewed and revised at least every ten years "to ensure a continued focus on learners within California’s education system."

On Oct. 29, a rally was held by the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) at UC Berkeley to protest the most recent proposed changes to the Master Plan. BAMN, a group started in 1995 by UC Berkeley students in response to the UC Regents’ ban on affirmative action, organizes rallies, marches, petitions and legal battles to “defend the right to public higher education” and promote equality within the public higher education systems. Yvette Felarca, a founding member of BAMN, says the initial mission of the group was to “reverse the ban on affirmative action in the UC system,” and has continued in “build[ing] a civil rights movement that could fight to uproot all forms of racism, sexism, anti-gay bigotry and any inequality in the society.”

In the current Master Plan, every high school student graduating in the top one-third of his or her class is guaranteed admission to a CSU campus and those who graduate in the top one-eighth of their class are guaranteed a slot at a UC campus. According to BAMN, under the new revisions, “the right of every California student to go to a public university is under attack in the State Legislature.” Changes in the wording will create an ambiguous state in which the guarantee would practically be eliminated.

Pre-1960, the UC system was mainly attended by wealthier students who were able to receive a better high school education as preparation. Ethnic minorities and poor or working class families attending less accomplished high schools were unable to take advantage of California’s public universities. BAMN fears “the proposed elimination of the guarantee is a continuation of the racist attack against the rights of Latino, black, Asian American, Native American and other minority students to attend a UC school.”

Minority enrollment did not increase at UC Berkeley this year. A victory for BAMN in their struggle against the proposed Master Plan revision would “strengthen [their] fight to increase underrepresented minority student enrollment.”

The state legislative joint committee in charge of this year’s revision of the Master Plan is being put under pressure by other organizations who support BAMN, such as the Berkeley School Board, Oakland Federation of Teachers and the UC Berkeley Associated Students of the University of California among many others.

Contact BAMN at contact_bamn@uclink.berkeley.edu or visit www.bamn.com.