Professor Hart Interviewed on KCPR about Amendment 46
October 2, 2008
Professor Melissa Hart spoke with Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner today about Amendment 46 and its potential effects on Colorado. The measure is designed to prohibit discrimination and preferential treatment by Colorado government. Hart, who has been working against the measure on her own time not-affiliated with CU, argues that the amendment is not directed at eliminating quotas or point systems since these are already illegal in Colorado. Instead, she warns that the measure will abolish, “modest equal opportunity programs like training, outreach, and mentoring that enable communities who have traditionally been underrepresented in education, employment, and in the economic life of our community to have a fair chance to participate.” These programs have increased the economic diversity and accomplishment of our state.
This amendment will likely impact Colorado Law. Hart urges voters to look at what happened in California and Michigan, where similar measures were passed. Their college and graduate school classrooms saw a dramatic reduction in the representation of different cultural backgrounds and racial groups. “Eliminating those programs is just a bad idea as a matter of policy for our state.”