The Future

As this blog comes to a close, we must realize that the problems discussed in these Civic issue blogs are not going to magically solve themselves over night. Yet if these problems still exist in the distant future at the same capacity they do today, our society will have failed at improving.

This holds especially true for affirmative action. The most often provided reasons for affirmative action are to make up for the wrongs of the past and to promote diversity in schools. If one hundred years from now, society still has to make up for the enslavement of a people, I don’t know when it will ever stop being a reason. As far as achieving diversity, there are numerous ways at achieving this without having to resort to affirmative action.

In the 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger case, the Supreme Court concluded their opinion by stating, “We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest [of diversity] approved today.”

Will affirmative action be a thing of the past when we reach that prophesized limit in 2028? No one really knows for sure. However, certain schools have already banned the use of race in admission processes and other schools are looking into alternatives.

The previous post discussed some of the potential solutions to the issue. With that post, I took a more hypothetical approach. I focused on linking certain factors that would result in lower academic performance and therefore should be used for preferential treatment in the admissions process.

This post, however, will be looking at what ways to promote diversity schools are currently using.

There is, without a doubt, many schools that utilize affirmative action and race based admission processes. These schools on average show a higher rate of diversity, specifically African Americans and Latinos, which is to be expected, as their policies promote it. Most of these schools strongly protest the idea that affirmative action should be removed or banned.  

On the other hand, some schools have already banned affirmative action and race based admission processes. While some schools saw an immediate decrease in diversity, the diversity eventually rebounded due to the implementation of new programs.

Most opponents of removing affirmative action forget to consider what the school is thinking. Schools have admitted that diverse student populations provide a better learning environment. When a school bans affirmative action, it won’t stop trying to maintain its diversity.

By 2014, Michigan, California, Texas, Florida, Washington, Nebraska, Arizona, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma have all banned affirmative action. The typical phrasing of the ban states that preferential treatment or discrimination in public employment and education is prohibited.

Out of these states, California, Florida, and Texas passed legislation almost immediately that served to increase diversity. These schools used class rank as a method to properly represent the population. The top percentages (4 up to 9 in California, 20 in Florida, 10 in Texas) of a graduating class are given guaranteed admission to the State education system. This method balances out discontinuities created by varying school districts. It works on the principle that a student ranked 100 in a school with a standardized test score of 1900 is not particularly better than a student ranked 1 with a score of 1850. This provides boosts to students who put forth effort in high school, yet reside in an area with a struggling school district.

Outside of preferential treatment in general, certain schools have put forth more effort into providing financial aid and working with 2 and 2 programs. Additionally, some schools are looking at getting rid of legacy preferences which have predominantly benefited the white upper class. According to an article in The Atlantic, the achievement gap between high-income and low-income students is significantly higher than the black and white student gap.

I would like to conclude this blog with my final opinion on affirmative action. I can’t truthfully tell you if I’ve been affected by affirmative action in a positive or negative way. I am technically of a minority group (Asian American), but that group is infrequently talked about in discussions about affirmative action. In my honest opinion, affirmative action may work now and in the near future as a way to help those in need, but I believe that eventually the barriers to higher education should be torn down for students of all backgrounds, rendering affirmative action obsolete.

A Solution

Who applies for college?

Well for starters, those who can afford it.

Financial standings is a strong factor in determining if a student will enroll in college. According to a report by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), only 50 % of those from a low income family enrolled in college compared to 80% of those from high income families.

And this makes sense. Poor families often live in neighborhoods with substandard education systems. The lack in funding for these schools often result in the education provided failing to prepare students for employment, much less college.

According to an article by the NCES, children living in poverty have in general lower academic performance and increased rates of drop outs. A graph shown in the article displays that out of all ethnic groups, those from a black background are more likely to be impoverished.

Graph from the NCES (link above)

There is no doubt that background has a strong influence on who applies and attends college. Affirmative action takes into consideration some of these aspects but it is by no means a perfect system. The National Conference of State Legislatures looks at some these pros and cons in their article on affirmative action.

  

When it comes to proposing a potential solution to the issue, the true root of the problem must be found. Only then can the problem truly be handled and fully resolved.

Affirmative action looks to create equal opportunities for those of minority to excel in the education system. As a result of the current affirmative action policies, people of ethnic minorities and women have benefited.

While college admission offices reportedly contain biases which help determine those admitted, perhaps there exists a deeper reason to the existing demographics of higher education.

High school is an important part of the education system where students finish their basic education and look towards the future. From there, many will go straight to the workforce while some may continue to higher education.

The problem with using current demographics of higher education to determine the fairness of the admission process is that it often does not show the applicant pool. In reality, certain schools are predominately white because majority of the applicants are white. Say a school accepts 100 students a year. If 300 white students and 100 students from minority backgrounds apply and equal amounts of each are accepted, the school will have admitted 75 white students and 25 of minority background. While the number of accepted minority students is lower than accepted white students, the admissions process were completely fair; the applicant pool is what created the outcome. A good example of this would be in the Asian American community. As a part of that culture, education is highly stressed resulting in extremely high application rates and enrollment.

The ultimate goal that should be pursued in order to level the playing field is to increase the readiness of students going into college. Focus needs to be placed on those most at a disadvantage, which in this case is those struggling financially.

Naturally, the change can not be made dramatically. There is an undeniable history of discrimination against those of minority. But as society progresses, we are (hopefully) moving away from the unfair practices and treatments of the past. Once we have built ourselves out of the abyss of discrimination, the practice will not fully level the playing field. US News looks at using poverty preference to balance the demographics of admissions. While this tackles the problem from a different angle, it provides different results. In California schools that banned affirmative action, such policies helped increase the minority enrollment rate.

But in the end, we should be striving for a world where preference does not need to be given to anyone.