Ward Connerly and his anti-equal opportunity desires

A man by the name of Ward Connerly wants to put his initiative on the Arizona ballot this November–an initiative which is designed to dismantle all of Arizona’s equal opportunity programs that address race and gender barriers in public education, public employment and public contracting.

Right now, Connerly is trying to get the Arizona Legislature to pass HCR 2041. If it passes, Connerly would get his anti-equal opportunity initiative on the ballot this November “for free”-meaning he would not be required to gather the 300,000 signatures that are needed to get on the Arizona ballot.

Connerly is a former Board of Regent in California who works to eliminate equal opportunity programs in states around the country. He has already destroyed equal opportunity in California, Michigan, and Washington. This year, he has targeted Arizona.

Why should we fight HCR 2041? Because a successful anti-equal opportunity ballot initiative will have far-reaching consequences in Arizona by dramatically reducing the participation of women and people of color in public education, state contracting and employment.

For example, the passage of California’s Prop 209 (the same Connerly initiative) led to a dramatic reduction in the enrollment rates of students of color in California’s flagship institutions. The hiring of women in the UC system decreased, as well. The percentage of new faculty hires that were women dropped from 52% before Prop 209 to a staggering 13% in the year after the amendment was passed.

We can’t let this happen in our state.

This week, our legislators are voting on HCR 2041. All we need is to move one Republican to vote no.

Please contact Representative Tobin today and encourage him to support diversity in our education system by voting NO on HCR 2041.

Andy Tobin:  atobin@azleg.gov (602) 926-5172

Other Representatives to encourage to vote NO on HCR 2041 are:

Michele Reagan   mreagan@azleg.gov            (602) 926-5828
Adam Driggs         adriggs@azleg.gov              (602) 926-3016
Lucy Mason           lmason@azleg.gov              (602)  926-5874
Rich Crandall        rcrandall@azleg.gov            (602) 926-3020
Kirk Adams            kadams@azleg.gov             (602) 926-5495
Tell our Legislators to vote NO on HCR 2041 because:

• This is bad for Arizona’s colleges and universities - if passed, all equal opportunity programs in Arizona would be eliminated. Program’s like:

The Women in Science and Education (WISE) Program at our state universities, that supports women as they pursue careers in science, math, technology, and engineering.

The Upward Bound Program, which helps first generation students succeed after they’ve been accepted to college and are enrolled in higher learning.

The Hispanic Mother Daughter Program, which helps teenage girls prepare for college and then supports them after they’re enrolled in higher learning.

• Arizona would return to a “good old boys” network, where people are not offered jobs, contracts, and educational positions based on their knowledge and expertise, but rather because of who they know.

• Ward Connerly is an outsider, and he should have to do his own work to get his issue on our ballot.  He makes over $2.2 million per year doing this around the country, surely he can get his own signatures and stop wasting our Legislature’s time.

• Ward Connerly did this same initiative in Michigan, and every elected official in the state who spoke about this initiative spoke against it.  All major businesses in the state fought this initiative, as did their state Chamber of Commerce.  In fact, the ONLY group that supported the Michigan effort was the KKK.

Your immediate action is appreciated.