Technical fields require people to start building problem-solving and mathematical skills early in their school lives, as young as fifth or sixth grade, according to academians. These students will start to be impacted by race-based programs and laws as early as their teens. The answer depends on whom you ask. Available data shows that minority enrollments from fall 1995 to fall 1999 slipped slightly, while minority employment rose during that span. Since 1995, when the first such statutes went into effect in the University of California system, freshman enrollment rates have shown no identifiable pattern either way, the organization said.
Employment rates are more favorable for minorities.
The system's Board of Regents repealed AA in 1995, becoming the first major university system in the country to do so. Its action led to a 1996 statewide ballot initiative, Proposition 209, that was passed by voters to eliminate affirmative action in all university admissions and government contract hiring in the state. Since the UC's decision in 1995, minority enrollments have been closely watched. Individual campuses, particularly the so-called elite schools at Berkeley and Los Angeles, have been scrutinized. Each passing year was expected to provide a clearer picture of the effects.