consideration would definitely be a lot fairer? and help you? yes, in some sense it would help me. reporter: zo says he was accepted to every university of california school in the state that banned affirmative action in 1996. what s happened here in california could signal the future for u.s. colleges without affirmative action. ucla professor eddie cole says the impact was immediate. as soon as that went into effect you saw at places like berkeley and ucla, the black student enrollment among incoming freshmen dropped dramatically. reporter: by more than half at those schools. across the uc system, black and latino enrollment fell sharply the next year without affirmative action. but in the decades to follow, the uc system still took a progressive approach to improve the numbers to mid-90s levels, though black student enrollment still lags at uc berkeley, and ucla ontario regionally returned to mid- 90s level.
americans, but without it will harm all minorities in the understand. . that s where i stand right now. kyung lah joins us now. california voters rejected that would have repealed a law that prevents public universities from considering race in admissions. what was the discussion then. why did it fail? really fascinating because you think california is such a progressive state. but, you know, if you talk to the people who are behind this proposal in 2020, they ll say maybe voters didn t quite understand, that the money spent in voter outreach and education may not have been enough, and that the ballot, frankly, has a lot of these proposition. it is pages long. that could have been a factor. but in talking to professor cole that you saw in our story all this amounts to really a missed opportunity. california, in his opinion, is simply not as progressive as the rest of the country. yes, there are san francisco and los angeles, but this is a big diverse state. and one other thing, jo
affirmative action and college admissions. earlier, we mentioned how carroll california ended the practice for its public schools more than 25 years ago. it was the first day to do so. has more on what that experience could mean for the rest of the nation. harvard, yale, columbia, just the rejection letters that ended his ivy league dream. i m a straight a student, four point oh gpa, four point 68 waited gpa. did you get into any ivy league schools? i did not. that was so when we met him two years ago. this is where we find him today. soon to be a junior at ucla. i think eliminating race in consideration would definitely be a lot different. and help you? probably, yes, in some sense it would help me. so says he was accepted to every university of california school, the state banned a parent of action in 1996. what has happened here in california could signal the future for u.s. colleges without affirmative action. ucla professor eddie cole says the impact was immedi
he still believes affirmative action does not help him, but does see the impact beyond his own academic life. i will say this, right? affirmative action does harm it without it it will harm all the minorities in the united states. that s where i stand right now. california voters rejected a ballot proposition in 2020 that would have repealed the law that prevents the public universities from considering race in admissions. what was the discussion then? why did it fail? really fascinating. you think of california such a progressive state. but if you talk to the people behind this proposal in 2020, they will say voters maybe didn t quite understand the question, that the money spent in voter outreach and education may not have been enough. the ballot, frankly, has a lot of these propositions. it is pages long. that could ve been a factor. but in talking to professor cole, the one you saw in our story here at ucla, he says all this amounts to a missed opportunity. california, in h