Nat Hentoff rips apart a "pious" and "self-congratulatory" pro-affirmative-action ad in the July 11th edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education. This ad celebrates the recent Supreme Court decision to uphold the concept of AA, although it ignores the Court's ruling that quota systems, like the one at the University of Michigan, are unconstitutional:
No mention was made, in this tribute to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's deciding vote, about the hidden fact that the University of Michigan's law school, whose case was victorious, operates on a clear quota system in defiance of the 14th Amendment's "equal protection of the laws" and the 1964 Civil Rights Act....
The ad in the Chronicle...did state all too accurately that "virtually the entire education community had urged the Supreme Court to recognize that racial diversity on campus is a compelling national interest." But, in the June 30 Legal Times, constitutional analyst Stuart Taylor emphasized that such racial preferences do nothing to reduce the growing racial gaps in learning skills throughout the country.
Taylor said that reducing these gaps is "an objective far more vital to the futures of tens of millions of black and Hispanic kids than getting affirmative-action tickets to elite universities for a fortunate, fairly affluent few thousand....
Indeed. This is why I refuse to support AA at the college level. Regardless of the original honorable intention of AA, and the well-meaning of many of its supporters, the fact is that reforming K-12 education is far more important than insuring that one minority kid gets into Harvard rather than U Mass. The goal should not be to institutionalize AA, but to reform education beginning with first grade so that minority kids do not need AA in order to attend college.
Mr. Hentoff poses a question that needs no reply:
...in that Chronicle of Higher Education ad, there is a pious section in which these high-minded influential experts pledge to "work in partnership with primary and secondary educators to dramatically improve the quality of educational outcomes for poor children and children of color."
But where is the action?...Have you seen many of these prestigious champions of "diversity" in college admissions getting down to actually working in the political arena on a long-term basis? Have you seen them fight to ensure that racial preferences for the relatively few in college admissions will no longer be needed?...
I don't agree with Mr. Hentoff on everything (re: his comments on high-stakes testing), but he's right on the money here. The college folks praise "diversity" to the heavens, but are blind to the amount of work needed to provide a diverse, yet academically-prepared, student body.
Posted by kswygert at August 12, 2003 02:22 PM