California lawmakers vote to ban legacy admissions at universities like Stanford

California lawmakers on Tuesday voted to put a stop to “legacy” admissions at private universities.

The State Senate voted 26-5 to approve Assembly Bill 1780 , by Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, sending the bill to Newsom’s desk. Opposing the bill were GOP Sens. Marie Alvarado-Gil, Brian Jones, Roger Niello, Kelly Seyarto and Scott Wilk. The bill previously passed out of the State Assembly, 55-0.

The bill was then sent back to the Assembly for a concurring vote, before it could move on to the governor’s desk.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto the bill.

AB 1780 is Ting’s second attempt at ending the practice of giving preferential admission to the children of alumni and donors at institutions such as Stanford University or University of Southern California. A previous bill was watered down.

However, while the bill originally called for denying CalGrant funding to private universities that practice legacy admissions, that provision was stripped out of the bill in committee.

Now, the bill merely empowers the California Attorney General’s Office to look into it if a university is suspected of violating the ban and, if found to be true, the AG can require that college or university to submit more detailed reporting of students being given preferential treatment.

Ting’s office points to the fact that in 2022, 14% of Stanford’s new admissions had ties to donors or alumni, while citing a study that found that children from high-income families were twice as likely to gain admission to such universities than were middle- and low-income students who had comparable test scores.

Public universities and colleges already do not allow legacy admissions.

A spokesperson for Stanford University did not respond to The Bee’s request for comment by deadline.