California Bill Would Ban Legacy Admissions

06.21.2024

A bill now before the California Legislature would bar private colleges and universities from so-called “legacy” admissions. Such admissions give preference to applicants who are related to donors or alumni. The financial impact on noncompliant educational institutions could be substantial.

On May 21, 2024, Assembly Bill 1780 was passed unanimously by the state Assembly. It is now pending in the state Senate.

AB 1780 would add new section 66018.4 to the Education Code. The proposed new statute begins by declaring, “It is the intent of the legislature to stop the practice of legacy and donor admissions and to protect students as they pursue their higher education.” It would be effective starting with the 2025-26 academic year, and it would apply to both early and regular admissions.

The new statute would prohibit use of legacy and donor preferences in private higher education admissions. Specifically, it would bar asking an applicant if his relatives attended college (and where) or about his family’s donor status, and then (in the language of the bill) “including that information among the documents” used to decide admission. (Private higher education institutions still may collect this information for other purposes.)

Starting in 2026, the bill would require annual reporting by affected educational institutions of compliance or noncompliance to the state Legislature and the state Department of Justice. The report of a noncompliant school must include certain information about admitted students (legacy and donor status, race, geography, income bracket, and athletic status, as well as the admission rate of applicants given legacy/donor preferences compared to others). After the required reports are received, the state Department of Justice must post the names of the noncompliant educational institutions on its website by the next fiscal year.

A non-compliant educational institution would be subject to a “civil penalty” equal to 100% of the money it received the previous year under the Cal Grant Program or the Cal Grant Reform Act. The civil penalty would be paid into a new “Cal Grant Account,” which would be available to fund subsequent Cal Grants.

In the last academic year, only seven of the approximately 90 private colleges and universities in California used legacy admissions. Last year, they collectively received $48.9 million from Cal Grants.

Recently, Senate staff has recommended deleting the civil penalties. They argue that existing analogous laws do not have civil penalties, and the penalties could be punitive and negatively affect students.

This is the second effort to pass a bill with these terms. In 2019, in response to the “Varsity Blues” scandal, in which rich parents tried to pay schools to admit their children through fake athletic credentials, the same assemblyperson introduced AB 697, which proposed a statute with similar terms. Opponents argued that Varsity Blues did not involve legacy admissions, that there was a lack of hard data, and that reducing Cal Grants support of private educational institutions would harm low-income students, and the bill was amended to include only reporting requirements. The final version of AB 697 enacted new Education Code section 66018.5, which requires higher education institutions which receive Cal Grant funds to report preferential treatment of applicants related to donors or alumni for the 2021-2024 academic years. That data is being used to support the pending bill.

Supporters say that legacy admissions are a form of racial prejudice and economic discrimination. They argue that diversity requires a “level field” and that preferences discourage applications by members of underserved groups and add to public doubt about higher education.

This bill can be viewed as part of a national trend. A year ago, the US Supreme Court banned race-conscious admissions programs. The states of Colorado, Maryland and Virginia recently banned legacy admissions, and Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota and New York are considering such a ban. At the federal level, a bipartisan bill has been introduced in Congress (SB 3232, the “MERIT Act”) to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to include use of legacy admissions as a factor in accreditation.

The economic impact of this bill would be greater on smaller schools. All schools will miss the funds, but larger schools with bigger endowments will feel it less.

We will continue to monitor the progress of this bill.

Please contact author Ken Perkins or your regular AALRR attorney if we can assist you in this area.