| Asian Prophylaxis | Large numbers of
fully qualified applicants are turned away from elite
institutions every day, for a variety of reasons. The
crux of the issue here is whether or not turning some few
of them away for the purpose of attaining racial
diversity, where a minimal degree of such diversity is
essential to the educational mission, constitutes an
especially egregious affront to our principles of equal
opportunity. I do not think so." |
Meanwhile the SF Chronicle has reported on Lowell High School's new admissions system ("mend it don't end it). For non Bay Area people, Lowell is San Francisco's only high school that has always admitted through academic competition.
Now there's a 69 point scale. If you score 63 to 69, you're guaranteed admission regardless of race. If you score between 50 and 63 and you're black or Hispanic (not Asian) you're also guaranteed admission. Finally, if you're not black or Hispanic and you score 50 to 63 you _may_ get in if you get enough "bonus points" for extracurricular activities, hardship background, etc.
A group of Asian students is continuing its discrimination suit arguing (quite rightly) that the new system still discriminates against them. What they've done of course is guaranteed admission for all the tip-top students so as to avoid a recent law school case where a white student who had scored higher than 200 minority students wasn't admitted while all the minorities students were let in. They've just shoved the discrimination a bit farther down and obfuscated it a bit by letting _some_ lower-scoring whites in.
-- Harry Henderson
I, for one, would back the egregious system at Lowell high school. The discrimination faced by the Asian teenagers is real. The question is whether or not this discrimination is serious enough to effectively thwart their educational prospects. I contend that it doesn't if indeed there is any 'objective' merit to scoring x amount on the Lowell entrance exam. It is presumably valuable elsewhere and said 'objectively qualified' students can exercise their privilege elsewhere. In educational matters, I would back such skewing up to the undergraduate admission process, and encourage the inclusion of remedial courses at the college level. At graduate and professional schools, you are on your own. Nothing else is truly certifiable which doesn't come out in the wash.
Essentially I argue that the 'objectively qualified' student has equally 'objectively' more options whereas the disadvantaged student has only affirmative action programs. I don't believe that affirmative action is an effective prophylaxis against superior skills, far from it. The fact that numerical minorities apply through affirmative action programs strengthens my position.
Further, I believe affirmative action of this type will overproduce long before there is any reasonable 'equality' in discrimination.
-- M. Bowen