Affirmative Action

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From the time of the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s moving to the
integration of schools and redistricting in the 1970s the relation between race
and education has been a hot topic that has progressed into more controversy
with a decline in racism and a raising in the enrollment of minorities to
Universities in the United States. Affirmative action has been an ongoing
issue since the 1960s as a way to desegregate schools and supported by the
Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Because of this goals were
often set for Schools and Businesses to meet quotas for minorities as a way
to judge success of the programs. This often overlooked (and still does)
certain standards between two people that may be equal but have difference
sin race or ethnicity. However, quotas where found to be unconstitutional in
1978 in Reggents of the University of California v Bakke under the Equal
Protection Clause, though race could still be considered for admissions.
Moving to the earlier 1990s several Supreme Court Cases found
that making decisions based on race was unconstitutional with regards to
University admissions. The most recent major decision was Gratz v.
Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger which decided that Universities may use
point systems in regards to admissions processes. This of course has led to
Universities adopting the system that University of Michigan had been
using.
All of this basically has led to reoccurring complaints that it is unfair to give
someone an unfair advantage based on something that they couldnt control.
Of course it is unlikely that Universities will make changes based on this
system unless they are forced to by the law and the status quo will be
maintained until such a time as the problem has been properly addressed.
The major issue with this of course is to determine if Universities and
Business still discriminate based on race, ethnicity, and gender. This is hard
to measure and as such is why the issue is such a major controversy. On top
of that what many have been arguing is that affirmative action should be
changed into something that is Socio-Economic based instead which is what
CU-Boulder is currently doing. They have achieved this by creating two
indexs one that determines how disadvantaged a student may be and
comparing them to those in similar situations (overachiever index). This has
been shown to be quite successful though socioeconomic indicators are
tricky because of the fact that universities cannot consider income in
applications because historically this had led to those that are closer or
below the poverty line being discriminated because of fears from the
University in them paying the full amount of the student loans or not being
able to contribute to endowments as much. Affirmative action is an issue
that is extremely relevant and while may be outdated is arguably still
important to consider while needing some serious adjustments.
Sources
http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/affirmative_action
http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/affirmative-action-court-
decisions.aspx
http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/53577.pdf
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/what-if-colleges-
embraced-affirmative-action-for-class-instead-of-race/280733/