Does Affirmative Action Lead To An Undefinable Goal?
The conventional wisdom has become that racial preference via Affirmative Action is doomed in higher education. It will be terminated by President Donald Trump’s new dominant-conservative Supreme Court, according to a March 2019 article in the Atlantic by Evan Thomas. But among the several hundred constitutional lawyers, students and journalists who crowded into a panel discussion on “The Future of Affirmative Action” at the American Constitution Society’s annual convention June 7 in Washington, D.C., almost all agreed—some fervently—that Affirmative Action absolutely must be active on college campuses throughout the country “in order to achieve the compelling interest of student body diversity.” “The Supreme Court made it clear that race could be used as one of the factors to achieve that diversity,” stated Georgetown University Law Center Professor Sheryll Cashin.
But no one addressed what the endgame was. What does a fully diversified campus look like? Former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said in 2006 that diversity would take about 25 years to reach “critical mass”—a term also repeated by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But what is critical mass? A number reflecting demography? But where? “It’s really undefinable,” concluded Richard Sander, a professor at the UCLA School of Law.
Reauthorizing The HIGHER ED ACT -- “Be Bi-partisan Or It Leads Nowhere”
They’re doing it—again! Education Committees in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate are trying again to reauthorize the 2008 Higher Education Opportunities Act, the former 1965 HEA, even when both chambers are dominated by different parties. But Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) who has a longtime collegial relationship with Senate Ed Com Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) warned Republican legislators “if we want an actual result here—a bill signed into law—we need to work in the Senate in a way that allows for ultimate passage in the House.”
They all concur on one thing. “Doors are opened by a college degree, and every American should have the opportunity to pursue postsecondary education,” Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) summarized at a hearing in June. “Higher education should be accessible and attainable, regardless of circumstance.” The two parties just differ on how to reach that goal. In the 2016 PROSPER Act (Promoting Real Opportunity Success and Prosperity through Education Reform), Republicans included reforms allowing students greater access to federal student aid, and promoting earn and learn programs, among other self-help programs. This year, Democratic presidential candidates have suggested paying off all student debts and making at least the first year or two of college tuition free. Both focuses will need to be reflected in the final proposal. Otherwise, Collins noted at the Center for American Progress, “To work any differently would simply be an exercise that would lead nowhere.”
The “Monster” Politics Of Student Loans
“We unleashed a monster,” Alice Rivlin, the originator of student loan programs in 1972, told the Wall Street Journal shortly before passing away on May 14, 2019. Always direct in her speech, the petite Rivlin, who for five decades was a domestic economic policy power-center in Democratic administrations, said that when she formulated the blue print for the new idea of government sponsorship of low-cost, long-term loans for students to pay for college, there was much they didn’t consider. “We felt strongly then what has now become an obsession: that everyone should go to college and borrowing money for it was the best investment as it would always pay off. We never considered that one day thousands of students would drop out of college with no degrees and huge debts. We didn’t realize depending on one’s major and demographic, going to an expensive four-year college in the 2000s might not be worth it for some. Instead we flooded the market with cheap money for college studies, and colleges responded by raising prices. Sallie Mae and private banks became involved and made big profits and schools collected even more.”
Rivlin died at age 88. She had been the recipient of a MacArthur genius award, as well as the first woman ever to head the Congressional Budget Office, the Office of Management and Budget and to be deputy chair of the Federal Reserve. She was well-known, friendly and accessible in Washington, D.C. Her son Douglas has worked for years for Congressman Luis Gutierrez and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
California’s Most Elite Public University Aims To Be An HSI
One of the priority goals of University of California, Berkeley’s Chancellor Carol T. Christ is to make CAL an “Hispanic-Serving-Institution.” Christ, the elite college’s first woman to serve in that role, plans to achieve the required 25% Hispanic undergraduate enrollment by relying on junior transfer students from community colleges across the state. At present, one of every three new students at Berkeley is a transfer student; a good percentage of them are Latinos. •
