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Aug. 21, 2021 06:26PM EST
Affirmative action on college campuses is endangered
Data: National Center for Education Statistics; Chart: Connor Rothschild/Axios
Affirmative action, which for 60 years has increased the number of students of color at American universities, is on the chopping block. A case accusing Harvard of discriminating against Asian applicants has made it to the Supreme Court, and the court could elect to get rid of the 60-year-old policy.
Why it matters: While that's an unlikely outcome, it could push colleges to come up with better ways of promoting diversity on campus rather than just looking at race, says Mitchell Chang, an education professor at UCLA.
- One possible alternative would be for colleges to look more closely at the high schools students are applying from and admit applicants from a diverse range of schools: rich and poor, as well as predominantly non-white.
Quick take: More than 70% of Americans, regardless of race, see college and post-graduate degrees as a way to succeed professionally and financially, a newly released Axios/Ipsos poll on inequities in higher education found.
- For people of color, higher education can help close a significant wealth gap.
But here's a hard truth: If we did away with affirmative action, higher education would be a lot more homogenous — primarily dominated by white and Asian students.
- The University of California system got rid of affirmative action through a ballot proposition in the late 1990s, and the effect was immediate, the New York Times reports. Black and Latino enrollment at the top UC schools — Berkeley and Los Angeles — fell sharply, and those students were largely replaced by white and Asian students.
- When UCLA Law went with a race-neutral admissions system, enrollment of Black and Native American students fell by more than 70%.
The state of play: Black, Latino and Native American students are far likelier than their white and Asian peers to have lower standardized test scores and lower grades — too often because they attend underfunded and under-resourced high schools.
- White, East Asian and South Asian students are also likelier to have access to advanced placement courses and standardized test prep.
- Many students of color, including many who are the first in their family to pursue higher education, first turn to community colleges to boost their careers.
- Meanwhile, college costs have tripled for public four-year colleges and more than doubled for public two-year schools and private, nonprofit four-year schools, while median family incomes for the lowest quintile have grown 21% in the past 30 years.
By the numbers: College campuses are more diverse than they were a few decades ago, but there's still a wide racial enrollment gap.
- In 2019, 89.9% of recent Asian high school graduates, 66.9% of recent white graduates and 63.4% of Latino graduates were enrolled in college, compared with 50.7% of Black graduates, per Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
The bottom line: Ending affirmative action decreases the number of students of color at top colleges and their chance at higher lifetime earnings.
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Jul. 10, 2021 11:00AM EST
Educators and activists fight back against the efforts to limit discussions about anti-racism
Teachers and civil rights activists are organizing and preparing to go to court to stop conservatives' efforts to block curriculum about institutional racism.
Why it matters: "It is the modern-day Scopes trial," American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten tells Axios, recalling the 1925 case over teaching evolution.
- Legislators in nearly half of U.S. states in recent months have passed or introduced proposals to constrain lessons about how racism has shaped the nation's history and political and economic systems.
- Conservative groups also are driving recall campaigns against school board members around the U.S.
Driving the news: Weingarten said her union will defend teachers' right to teach American history — and will aggressively protect any educator accused of violating such new laws and restrictions.
- "We're looking at court actions because these laws conflict with standards and our licensure requirements and our professional obligations," she said.
- Union delegates with the National Education Association earlier this month voted to expand the teaching of anti-racism and diversity in American classrooms, despite the growing backlash.
- The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and 79 other civil rights and education groups recently released a statement calling anti-racism classroom lessons a student right needing to be defended.
The big picture: This backlash against critical race theory comes as school systems grow more diverse and many parents welcome more diverse curriculums.
- The popularity of The New York Times' 1619 Project, by Nikole Hannah-Jones, which examined the history of slavery and its lasting impact in the U.S., also sparked conservative anger.
The other side: Citizens for Renewing America, a group led by a White House budget director under former President Trump, offers activists model legislation to craft bans on critical race theory in their states. Teachers also are facing threats of firing for introducing anti-racism lessons.
- At least 51 local recall efforts involving K-12 school boards have been initiated this year in reaction to critical race theory and COVID-19 closures.
- Critics of critical race theory are suggesting long-time popular children's books and novels regularly listed high school reading are dangerous now.
- Idaho state lawmaker Heather Scott cited the 1960 novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee as evidence that critical race theory was "creeping through our schools."
- A group of white parents in Tennessee claimed "Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story,” by Ruby Bridges, the first African-American child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana, was anti-American (and) anti-white.”
Reality check: Critical race theory — which holds that racism is baked into the formation of the nation and ingrained in our legal, financial, and education systems — was developed in law schools in the 1970s and isn't really taught in grade school.
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