California

EXCLUSIVE: 1st CA reparations bills announced by Black Caucus, making history

Published

1 year ago

February 1, 2024

EXCLUSIVE: 1st CA reparations bills announced by Black Caucus, making history

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KGO) — On Wednesday, members of the California Legislative Black Caucus announced a package of reparations bills in a first effort to repair Black Californians harmed by the legacy of slavery and anti-Black policies in the century and a half since emancipation.

The bills announced, on the eve of Black History Month, aim to make good on some of the more than 100 proposals issued by California’s first-in-the-nation state reparations task force in the summer of 2023.

The Black Caucus announced more than a dozen bills ranging from policies that would increase homeownership for Black Californians, expanding access to education and training, and a formal apology by the state for human rights violations and crimes against humanity against enslaved Africans and their descendants.

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Push for reparations in California takes significant step forward

ABC7 News Anchor and Race & Social Justice Reporter Julian Glover spoke exclusively with State Senator Steven Bradford of southern California who authored a handful of the bills.

Senator Bradford served on California’s nine-member state Reparations Task Force and argues reparations for Black Americans is long overdue.

“Reparations is not charity, it’s not a handout. It’s not a gift. It is what was promised and what is owed. It’s something that is 160 years overdue to African Americans who built this country. We wouldn’t be the great nation that we are today if it wasn’t for 400 years of free labor” he said.

Bradford has authored four pieces of legislation-three of which would promote homeownership for Black Californians and another that would establish a new state agency to oversee and fund the disbursement of any reparations passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom.

CA Reparations Task Force releases consequential report | Here’s what to know

VIDEO: What reparations could look like for Black Californians as task force prepares for final vote

Here’s what reparations would look like for Black Californians as the task force prepares for the final vote in Oakland Saturday.

There is a notable absence from the package of bills being proposed that many who attended the reparations task force’s meetings have demanded: direct cash payments for Black Californians that can trace their lineage to an enslaved African American.

The proposals released in the California Reparations Task Force’s final report were just that-recommendations. It is now up to the State Senate and Assembly to turn some, all, or none of those suggestions into concrete policy proposals. And even in California, in a state where democrats hold a supermajority, the political calculus involved is far from simple.

In 2020, California became the first state in the nation to create a state task force to study and develop reparations proposals for African Americans.

This is a developing story. ABC7 News will update this post when additional information becomes available.

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California

Congressional vote to overturn California clean car rules could kill New Mexico mandates

Published

9 hours ago

May 24, 2025

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Congressional vote to overturn California clean car rules could kill New Mexico mandates

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California

California schools seeing fewer kids as birth rates fall

Published

1 day ago

May 23, 2025

Press Room

California schools seeing fewer kids as birth rates fall

California saw a decline in public school enrollment for an eighth consecutive year, amid falling birth rates and the migration of families with children out of state.

Why It Matters

Declining enrollment in California has been an issue since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is an indicator of some of the issues facing the state, including falling birth rates, high housing costs pushing families out of the state and lasting impacts from the pandemic

On top of this, lower enrollment has major financial and social consequences for California’s public schools.

What To Know

In the academic year 2024-25, California schools had a total of 5,806, 221 students enrolled, according to data released by California’s Department of Education on Wednesday. This is a 7 percent decrease from the 6,235,520 recorded a decade ago.

There is also more than a 20 percent difference between the size of the number of students leaving school (488,295) and those starting it (384,822).

Stanford University education professor and economist Thomas Dee told The Los Angeles Times: “These losses largely reflect the fact that there are now substantially fewer school-age children in the state.

“This demographic decline is due to both lower birth rates and net migration of families with children out of California — e.g., due to housing costs and the growth of work-from-home employment.”

Indeed, California, like much of the rest of the United States, has a declining birth rate.

In 2023, the most recent year for which the California Department of Public Health records birth data, there were 400,129 births. This is down almost 100,000 births from a decade ago, when there were 494,392 births.

A file photo of John Marshall High School in Los Angeles, taken on March 13, 2020, shows students waiting outside after being let out early following an announcement of a district-wide closure caused by the…

AP

The state’s fertility rate was 49 per 100,000 residents in 2023—down from 60.6 per 100,000 residents in 2013.

However, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond stressed that there has been growth in transitional kindergarten (TK) enrollment—a new grade that serves four-year-olds.

What People Are Saying

Thomas Dee also spoke about “the students who fled public schools at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic who still have not returned.”

“The public school enrollment losses also reflect an enduring increase in private and home-school enrollment,” he added.

Tony Thurmond said: “While we have more work to do, the dramatic growth in TK is inspiring and shows that providing rigorous and quality programs can be a key ingredient to bringing more families back to our schools.”