The Brief

California’s private nonprofit colleges will no longer be able grant students an admissions advantage if their parents donated to or went to the same college after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Monday banning the practice.

The state joins a rarefied group of four others that have passed laws banning legacy admissions. Colleges will still be allowed to admit students with alumni or donor ties, but they’ll no longer be able to grant preferential treatment to those applicants in the admissions process.

“In California, everyone should be able to get ahead through merit, skill, and hard work,” Newsom wrote in a press statement. “The California Dream shouldn’t be accessible to just a lucky few, which is why we’re opening the door to higher education wide enough for everyone, fairly.”

The law kicks in next year.

Partly because California enrolls the most number of college students out of any state in the country, bill backers say this legislation is a necessary corrective to last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned all but military colleges from using race as a factor in admissions.

The court unwound almost 50 years of precedent allowing college admissions offices to use affirmative action as a way to promote campus diversity.

Like that court decision though, the legislation Newsom signed — Assembly Bill 1780 by Assemblymember Phil Ting, a Democrat from San Francisco — will affect just a few campuses in California.

Public campuses in California don’t practice legacy admissions. And state voters in 1996 changed California’s constitution to forbid public schools from using race as a factor in admissions.

If the Supreme Court decision last year sowed doubt for students that they’re wanted on college campuses, this bill aims to reverse that feeling in California and across the country, supporters say, particularly at a time when more high school graduates are skipping out on college, especially men. And while most colleges in California admit the vast majority of students who apply, backers of the bill are concerned about highly selective schools that are often conveyor belts for corporate and political influence.

In showing students that wealth doesn’t offer a leg up in the admissions process, “you’re doing something bigger related to culture and (social) fabric as students are questioning the value of college altogether and whether or not they want to pursue a higher education,” said Jessie Ryan, president of The Campaign for College Opportunity, a California-based advocacy and research organization that co-sponsored Ting’s bill.

Only seven private nonprofit universities out of about 90 in California admitted students whose family members either donated money to the school or attended the school themselves in fall 2022. Slightly more than 3,300 undergraduates — out of an admissions class of 31,633 — were legacy admissions. Last fall, it was six colleges and about 2,100 students admitted with legacy or donor ties as a factor.

At one school, Northeastern University Oakland, fewer than 10 students who were admitted based on legacy ties did not meet the school’s admissions criteria last fall. The other campuses — Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College, Santa Clara University, Stanford University, University of Southern California — admitted students with legacy or donor ties who all met admissions standards.

The association that represents private colleges in California opposed the bill, but was able to fight to remove harsher penalties from an earlier version.

Those would have forced colleges to pay a civil penalty equal to the amount they got in state financial aid grants if they continued to use legacy as a factor in admissions — a cost of several million dollars for some colleges that enroll relatively high numbers of low-income students.

Last year’s fires not only destroyed homes and businesses, but also critical infrastructure, such as water delivery systems. Rebuilding that infrastructure is particularly challenging in unincorporated areas such as Altadena, which is primarily served by three tiny, private water companies.

The Las Flores Water Company is one of them — the company lost its two reservoirs in the Eaton Fire. And it has only about 1,500 customers, 75% of whom lost their homes in the fire.

“So we're basically running the company off of 25% of the revenue that we used to have,” John Bednarksi, president of the company’s board, told LAist.

The company is presenting its plans to address that shortfall at a meeting tonight. But rumors about the purpose of the meeting have been spreading online.

Bednarski said that to keep from going bankrupt, the company is proposing charging customers an extra $50 a month for the next five years, or they can pay the lump sum of $3,000 and the company will pay them back interest at the end of the five-year period. The charges will apply only to households with existing water service. As others rebuild and connect to the system, the charge will kick in.

The company is also looking to consolidate with one of the three other private Altadena water suppliers, Lincoln Avenue Water Company, which serves about 5,000 homes and businesses. The water companies have applied for funding from the State Water Resources Control Board to study whether they can merge.

L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes Altadena, has publicly supported the idea.

“We have to keep the lights on at the company and keep the water company serving water because that's a primary utility for people,” Bednarski said. “But I also think that as we start rebuilding, we want to build back better than we were before.”

The company will present its final bill charge proposal and discuss consolidation with residents tonight. The proposals will not be voted on until a later date, Bednarski said.

Lack of public funds

Another challenge with rebuilding private water companies is that they are ineligible for state and federal funds that public utilities have access to, said Greg Pierce, senior director of the Luskin Center for Innovation at UCLA and lead author of reports on the damage to water systems after the fires and how water systems can rebuild more resiliently.

“These systems really have been on their own,” Pierce said.

That largely means the costs to rebuild will fall on customers. Consolidation, he added, can lower costs over the long term.

But the $3,000 charge over five years has “come as a big shock” to many residents, said Morgan Z Whirledge, who lost his home in the Eaton Fire and was recently elected to the Altadena Town Council.

“This is an added layer of burden,” he said. “ This comes at a really inopportune time for people in this recovery process.”

Still, Whirledge said he understands the need to keep the company solvent and sees consolidation as a good long term solution.

“ I'm hoping that ultimately Altadena is going to be better served in the future, better served with stronger water infrastructure,” Whirledge said.

The big picture

Overall, the fires caused more than $2 billion in damage to infrastructure overseen by L.A. County — excluding the costs of restoring these small water companies, said Anish Saraiya,  director of Altadena recovery for Barger’s office. And, he added, the total budget for the county Public Works Department, which serves all of L.A. County, is around $5 billion,

“Ultimately their pathway to restoration and recovery is going to be one that's going to require help from both state and federal governments,” Saraiya said.

But federal funding in particular has lagged — the Trump administration has still not approved nearly $40 million in recovery funds requested by Gov. Gavin Newsom last February. Some of that funding could flow to these small water companies, something Barger advocated for, Saraiya said.

“It is paramount that the county gets that funding,” Saraiya said. “It is going to take that kind of scale of assistance to help us rebuild this community.”

In the past, state and federal funding has been essential, though slow, to rebuild water systems after fires. For example, the Northern California town of Paradise was destroyed by the 2018 Camp Fire, but it did not receive state funds to help rebuild its Irrigation District until 2020, and federal funds did not come until 2022.

As L.A. County waits for funding to come through, officials are looking for other ways to fund infrastructure. The county recently established an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District. The same type of district has also been established for unincorporated areas affected by the Palisades Fire.

Such districts allow the county to dedicate a portion of future property tax revenue to rebuild infrastructure. It also allows the county to take out bonds or loans to finance the rebuild.

“ The next step for us is to build out the infrastructure plan and then also pursue the financing side of it to be able to generate revenues, either through bonds or through other creative financing strategies to get us the money we'd need,” Saraiya said, “ because these districts don't generate revenue until development starts to occur and homes are rebuilt.”

The line of cars stretched a quarter-mile down Sierra Madre Villa Avenue in Pasadena. For hours, they inched into the parking lot, where volunteers filled trunks with bottled water, produce, diapers, toothbrushes — and, on this particular Saturday during the December holiday season, toys.

Pasadena Church became a distribution hub when the Eaton Fire began — and never stopped.

“People respond to crises… So everybody responded, all of the companies, all of the agencies, they all tried to do something. And then the resources started shifting,” Pastor Kerwin Manning of Pasadena Church said. “After a couple of months, all of the hype died down… It became apparent that those of us who were remaining were in it for the long haul.”

Cars line up outside Pasadena Church as Pastor Kerwin Manning and volunteers distribute food to families during a community distribution in December.

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Erin Rode

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The LA Local

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A year after the Palisades and Eaton fires, many Angelenos are still struggling to afford food and other basic necessities. An October survey of 2,335 fire survivors commissioned by the Department of Angels found that 27% of those with incomes under $50,000 and 22% of those earning between $50,000 and $99,999 have had to cut back on food.

Around half of those surveyed are making up the difference by “blowing through their savings and taking on debt,” Angela Giacchetti, head of communications at the Department of Angels told The LA Local. “And that’s not good, but there’s a smaller percentage, but an alarming number of survivors who are experiencing even worse outcomes… People are going without food. They’re skipping meals. They’re skipping medical care, they’re taking on extra jobs to make ends meet, they’re falling behind on their bills.”

For many families, that tradeoff has become impossible. Before the Eaton Fire, “We had a place to stay, so if we had to spend our last money on food, then that was fine,” Danielle Valdes said at a recent “Come Get Some Event” by local non-profit Home of Kings and Queens, which runs a free weekly farmer’s market for Eaton Fire victims. Now, the family is juggling paying rent while trying to stretch their insurance money as far as possible so that “it can go towards housing or getting our way back to Altadena.”

Local non-profit Home of Kings and Queens runs a free weekly farmer’s market for Eaton Fire victims.

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Erin Rode

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The LA Local

)

For most people impacted by the fires, there is a significant gap between what was lost and what insurance and other aid has covered. A January survey from the Department of Angels found that 60% of survivors face a gap in coverage of at least $100,000, and for more than half of respondents, that amount exceeds their annual household income.

When it comes to these more severe hardships, “the disparity between white and nonwhite survivors is large,” according to the January survey. Black and Latino survivors are two to three times as likely as white survivors to have cut back on food or experienced other forms of severe hardship, such as falling behind on rent, mortgage, or utility bills, relying on food assistance, or experiencing homelessness. Single parents and renters are also experiencing these challenges at higher rates.

For Alexa Rodriguez, losing her family’s Altadena apartment of 17 years pushed them over the edge. Rodriguez landed in a Pasadena apartment with her two teenage children after the fire, but now pays $800 more a month. As a renter, she didn’t receive insurance money for temporary housing, and has struggled to piece together financial support. “To get back on your feet it might take a year or two, the first month I did get help, but since then I’ve been on my own,” Rodriguez said, who takes the bus to the Home of Kings and Queens’ distributions every week.

In the weeks after the fires, events like those at Pasadena Church were a common scene. Brandon Lamar, founder of Project Passion, said he once counted more than 30 separate distribution events in the area on a single Saturday.

Now, the weekly events at Pasadena Church (a collaborative effort with Project Passion and other partners) are among the few remaining regular distribution events for people impacted by the Eaton Fire. Lamar calls it “the longest-lasting distribution hub in our community.” Project Passion also offers an appointment-only free store every Monday and Tuesday.

“People told us early on that this might change in the long haul, because when people get settled and things of that nature, but what we’ve started to see is that the need has actually increased, but the donations have decreased,” Lamar said.

Some national organizations that were on-the-ground immediately after the fires have moved on. FEMA ended its in-person presence in October (although virtual support is still available). And some local groups that pivoted to provide support after the fires have also returned to their usual focus areas. The remaining food distributions are mostly run by residents of the fire-impacted communities, according to Giacchetti.

As direct aid has slowed, some have also turned to longstanding food programs. Foothill Unity Center, which offers six weekly food distribution events for residents across 12 foothill communities (including Altadena and Pasadena), saw about six times as many people in 2025 versus 2024, according to Julie Swayze, director of advancement and institutional giving at the nonprofit.

Foothill Unity Center offers six weekly food distribution events for residents across 12 foothill communities, including Altadena and Pasadena.

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Erin Rode

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The LA Local

)

Many fire survivors are “likely to face years of deficits” before they can recover financially, according to the Department of Angels report. A year after the fire, Manning and Lamar believe they’re seeing increasing need.

Finding new work, rebuilding a home or securing housing all takes time, Manning said, complicated by factors like paying higher rent or running out of insurance for temporary housing. That’s why he believes in supporting people through the “middle passage” of recovery. When members of his congregation ask how much longer the church’s parking lot will be a food distribution hub, he gives a one-word answer: “Until.”