“Segregation yesterday, segregation today, segregation tomorrow.”
After the Supreme Court outlawed systemic racism in college admissions, the media began chattering about legacy admissions. In response a number of colleges have announced that they’re getting rid of it. (Don’t worry, donating $20 million to build a new dorm still comes with privileges. The students losing out will be from a less wealthy tier.) But here’s Biden’s Secretary of Education admitting that was a shell game.
Eliminating legacy and donor-based admissions won’t be enough to maintain diversity at colleges after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told Axios in an interview.
Of course not. The right quota numbers won’t be hit if college admissions run on merit. What Cardona won’t let himself say (because it would be the truth) is that merit produces too many Asian admissions whereas reducing legacy admissions won’t hurt Asian students all that much.
Cardona, who appeared at the NAACP Convention in Boston, said the Biden administration is looking to education leaders for input on legal workarounds after the affirmative action decision.
“Segregation yesterday, segregation today, segregation tomorrow.”
Legal workarounds also means finding ways to defy the Supreme Court’s decision. Imagine the media’s reaction if a Trump official had said that in response to a Supreme Court decision outlawing systemic racism.
Cardona praised colleges that have eliminated legacy admissions, such as Wesleyan University, but he said that alone won’t change “that there are black and brown kids that now with this affirmative action decision are going to feel like they’re not wanted.”
I didn’t realize college admissions were about “feeling wanted” as opposed to ability, talent, skill, and studiousness. You know… merit.
Of course, if we’re dealing with merit, a guy with a BS in bilingual education who wrote this D.Ed thesis on ‘Sharpening the Focus of Political Will to Address Achievement Disparities’ (I did you not) wouldn’t be running the Department of Education.
Cardona’s concerns are understandable. Without affirmative action, he’d still be yelling at third graders about Karl Marx. So instead he’s yelling, “Segregation yesterday, segregation today, segregation tomorrow.”
Article posted with permission from Daniel Greenfield
