Anti-Preference Measure Sparks Competing Suits

By Robert C. Johnston

Educators were unclear last week how passage of the broadly worded California Civil Rights Initiative will affect affirmative action, voluntary desegregation efforts, and academic programs targeting minorities and women in the state.

California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 209, a state constitutional amendment that ends racial and gender preferences in public schools and colleges as well as in government hiring and contracting.

"For the time being, nothing in the district is going to change," Gail Kaufman, the spokeswoman for the San Francisco school district, said following the Nov. 5 vote. "There's still a fair amount...