California saw renewed interest in the issue of education choice in the late 1980s, with 11 bills introduced in the 1989 legislative session. The primary reason for this is the reluctance to consider public aid to private schools. California State Superintendent Bill Honig proposed AB 2134, which would require parents to choose a public school each year. The politics of choice have changed, and low-cost proposals that don't promote alternative school sites have become popular. This paper analyzes the California bills and their implications for education choice in California.

This report examines the pervasive racial disparities in California's school discipline system, with a focus on the disproportionate suspension and expulsion of Black students, particularly Black males. Drawing from 1980s statewide data and court cases such as Larry P. and Watson v. Stockton, it documents patterns of overrepresentation in both special education placements and disciplinary actions. The report highlights how systemic bias—embedded in subjective referral categories like "willful defiance"—has led to significant exclusion of Black students from mainstream classrooms, perpetuating...