A while back, there was a news alert on my phone that the Committee finally decided to release its preliminary report.  As expected, reparations are to be extraordinarily broad and far-reaching, impacting multiple industries rather than just the personal items of descendants of slaves.

No one should be surprised by this.

What I was surprised by is how quickly this alert and topic dropped off of my phone with nary a trace.  I had to do an internet search to find further information (including recent news articles about it) and to see what the actual recommendations are.

Inspired by Nancy Pelosi’s guidance, “You have to pass it to see what’s in it”, many of the elements are to be “detailed in the final Task Force Report”.

But just for fun, I thought I’d list some of the highlights from the more easily accessible summary (the 483-page report is much harder to find).

1. Prison Reform: prisoners will be allowed to vote from jail, no longer be required to work “as able”, can choose what they would like to do for work and be paid a fair wage for that work (that is comparable to outside prison).  Essentially, everyone who is incarcerated is then a paid student with room and board.  Fantastic.  The report refers to this as ending modern enslavement.
2. Penalize Law Enforcement  End Racial Terror: officers and their employing agencies are to be held accountable and liable for unlawful harassment and violence, eliminating any immunity, and including extra fines and civil penalties if there is a “racial component” for the harassment.  This would also repeal the Bane Act.  It would fund memorials of “trauma of state-sanctioned white supremacist terror, possibly including memorials, and funding a long-term truth and reconciliation commission.”  Included in the Racial Terror category, we also have financial assistance.  The state is to somehow estimate the lost property and/or businesses “destroyed through racial terror”, compensate the black community, and provide housing grants and zero-interest loans to businesses, etc.
3. Political Disenfranchisement: Again, California needs to recognize and apologize for disenfranchising black voters and pursue special education programs with state-funded drives to register high school students to vote (because Motor-Voter isn’t enough) with funding set aside to create paid election jobs for students after school hours. Additionally, it should be enacted by April of next year.  Right in time for 2024, folks.  CA should also consider legislation to avoid redistricting in ways that are detrimental to the black community (as designed by…the government) as well as requiring a Racial Impact Report for all proposed legislation, budgets, and regulations.  Allow felons to serve on juries and prohibit judges and attorneys from excluding them due to their criminal conviction history.
4. Housing Segregation: Establish a state-subsidized mortgage system that guarantees low interest rates for qualified California Black mortgage applicants.  Additionally, repeal CA Constitutional Amend. 34.  “Crime Free Housing” only makes black felons homeless, according to the report.

The next section is so long, we’re starting over at number one.  As suspected, much of the reparations studies are being used in order to force the hand of educators in public and private schools and to require certain types of education in order to get a degree in California.  If California requires certain standardized tests to legally comply, they will.  Then, that new version will become the national standard.  As goes California, so goes the nation.

1. Separate and Unequal Education: This would add a financial grant and stipend related only to black students in California.  Currently, the Local Control Funding Formula includes foster children, English Learners, and kids with supplemental food needs as a part of the formula.  This would add the first and only race-based rule by the legislature.  Because I can’t make this up, I’m including this section in total, unaltered by quoting with bolding mine:
   1. Methodically guide this funding to provide instructional supports, enrichment, and counseling to Black students.
   2. Identify and eliminate racial bias and discriminatory practices in standardized testing, inclusive of statewide K-12 proficiency assessments, undergraduate and postgraduate eligibility assessments, and professional career exams (ex. STAR, ACT, SAT, LSAT, GRE, MCAT, State Bar Exam).
   3. Provide funding for free tuition to California colleges and universities.
   4. Provide funding for African American/American Freedmen owned and controlled K-12 schools, colleges and universities, trade and professional schools.
   5. Adopt mandatory curriculum for teacher credentialing that includes culturally responsive pedagogy, anti-bias training, and restorative practices and develop strategies to proactively recruit African American teachers to teach in K-12 public schools.
   6. Reduce arbitrary segregation within California public schools and the resulting harms to Black students at majority-non white under-resourced schools, by creating porous school district boundaries that allow students from neighboring districts to attend.  Increase the availability of inter-district transfers to increase the critical mass of diverse students at each school so that students are assigned, or able to attend, public schools based on factors independent of their parents’ income level and ability to afford housing in a particular neighborhood or city.
   7. Provide scholarships for Black high school graduates to cover four years of undergraduate education(similar to the G.I. Bill model) to address specific and ongoing discrimination faced in California schools.
   8. Implement systematic review of public and private school disciplinary records to determine levels of racial bias and require all schools to implement racially equitable disciplinary practices.• Require that curriculum at all levels and in all subjects be inclusive, free of bias, and honor the contributions and experiences of all peoples regardless of ethnicity, race, gender, or sexual orientation.
   9.  Advance the timeline for ethnic studies classes in public and private high schools
   10.  Adopt a K-12 Black Studies curriculum that introduces students to concepts of race and racial identity; accurately depicts historic racial inequities and systemic racism; honors Black lives, fully represents contributions of Black people in society, and advances the ideology of Black liberation.
   11.  Encourage identification and support of teachers who give culturally nurturing instructions and adopt new models for teacher development to improve teacher habits in the classroom.
   12. Improve funding and access for educational opportunities for all incarcerated people in both juvenile and adult correctional facilities.

With that, I suggest that everyone read the report for themselves.  Beyond the usual vague suggestions that propose wide-reaching or expensive expansion of services, there is a clear agenda.

Further topics include:

“Racism in Environment and Infrastructure”

“Pathologizing Black Families”(which has more to do with incarceration, welfare allocation, and eliminating back child support payments to the state)

“Stolen Labor and Hindered Opportunity”

“Mental and Physical Harm and Neglect”

Truly, it must be seen to be believed.  But remarkably, somehow this wonderful and celebrated Task Force is not shouting the recommendations to the heavens with interviews and reports everywhere.  It is almost as if when the people know what is in it, they might find something to say about it.