Affirmative Action and the Future of Education Reform

While race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions was never a panacea for systemic racial inequality in the US, it signaled good intentions. It also provided a boost to racial diversity in our elite colleges, and thereby in our elite social, economic, military, and governmental institutions. In practice, it was a small but significant attempt to begin correcting disparities in upward economic mobility between racial groups. Without it, we are facing a new and uncharted admissions landscape. We will get some clues about the shape of this new landscape when early admissions data are available, and we will know its contours for sure when enrollment data arrive over the next few years. Even then, the fallout of the court’s decision will continue, likely manifesting in declining racial diversity on elite campuses. Race-conscious affirmative action was a Band-Aid over the deep injury of systemic racism, and ripping it away exposes the open wound. The plain fact that selective colleges are elitist will become all the more obvious — and elitism is a bad look in our politics, on the left and on the right. <a href="https://medium.com/georgetown-cew/affirmative-action-and-the-future-of-education-reform-969d826c0507">Website</a>