Shortly after the Supreme Court upheld Michigan’s ban on affirmative action, a Wisconsin Republican lawmaker revealed plans to introduce a constitutional amendment to ban the practice in his state, a according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“People do not realize — the average person does not realize — how extensive race and gender preferences are in our society,” Wisconsin state Sen. Glenn Grothman said.
The Journal Sentinel reported that Grothman’s plan would ban the practice in the state constitution, which would require not only approval by the voters via referendum but also by two consecutive sessions of the state legislature.
Grothman, who currently serves as the assistant majority leader in the Wisconsin Senate, announced plans earlier this month to run for U.S. Rep. Tom Petri’s congressional seat in Washington.
In 2009, Grothman took issue with a University of Wisconsin diversity program designed to help increase “diversity, equity, and inclusion” in the state school system, going so far to ask the Board of Regents in a statement: “Does the University hate white men?”
While prior attempts from Grothman to end affirmative action in Wisconsin have failed, a handful of other states across the country have passed similar bans on allowing race to factor into school admissions decisions at various levels. Florida and California leaders instituted those anti-affirmative action policies in the late 1990s, while Arizona, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma passed prohibitions in recent years.
In California, Democratic lawmakers have begun the process of reinstating the state’s affirmative action program, potentially ending a ban that has been in place for 20 years.
Many universities across the country have seen drops in black and hispanic student enrollment levels following state bans on the use of affirmative action, according to a 2013 analysis from The New York Times.
In Michigan, African-American enrollment dropped by 33% at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in the six years following the state’s ban.
Morgan Whitaker