Jeb Bush’s One Florida Plan Continues to Damage Black Enrollments at the State’s Most Prestigious Law Schools

In the year 2000 Governor Jeb Bush issued an executive order banning the use of race in decisions for admission to undergraduate and graduate programs at state-operated universities in Florida. This executive order continues to have a major damaging impact on black enrollments at the state’s two most prestigious law schools.

At the University of Florida School of Law, black first-year enrollments have dropped significantly since the ban went into effect. In 2000 there were 53 black students in the entering class. By 2004 the number had dropped by more than one half to 22. This year, black first-year enrollments rebounded to 35, but this is still 34 percent below the level that existed prior to the enactment of the One Florida plan.

At the law school at Florida State University, there were 23 black students in the entering class in 2000. This year, there are only 10 black students in the first-year class.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.