The Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles

California’s statewide system for public education is designed to serve a minority of its students very well, and the rest, not well at all. The “haves”—students with access to necessary educational supports—thrive, while the “have nots”—students who lack these resources due to no fault of their own—lag behind. Black, Indigenous, Latino, Pacific Islander students, immigrant children, foster youth, unhoused students, students with disabilities, and English learners are consistently underserved by our schools. Over the past 30 years, much attention has been directed at the persistence of the discredited “achievement gap,” which subtly (and not so subtly) has placed the responsibility for “not achieving” on students, their families, and their communities. Today, formally conceptualized as an “opportunity gap,” this reclassification still fails to assign responsibility where it belongs: on the State’s failure to establish a public education system that ensures (not just aspires to) a high-quality education.This paper examines how, at its core, the California statewide education system has constructed educational pipelines that perpetuate and expand stark inequities based on race, income, and immigrant status.