California voters will not be asked this year to decide whether to roll back California’s ban on racial preferences in college admissions, a decision the Legislature reached Monday after weeks of intense advocacy from Asian Americans who argued that a repeal would hurt their children’s prospects for getting into the most competitive public campuses.Can't lose them to Republicans, can we?
In email blasts to voters, news releases in Asian-language media and town-hall meetings up and down the state, the 80-20 National Asian American PAC mounted a campaign that targeted Asian American legislators and urged Asian American Democrats to re-register as Republicans in an effort to halt the measure known as Senate Constitutional Amendment 5.
Here's the issue:
The racial makeup of California’s most prestigious university campuses has been a political flashpoint for decades. When voters approved Proposition 209 in 1996, African Americans made up 7.1 percent of students admitted to UC Berkeley, and Asian Americans were 32.1 percent, UC statistics show. By last year, African Americans had dropped to 4 percent of Berkeley’s admissions, while Asian Americans had increased to 42.3 percent.If that's the "problem", the solution is still not affirmative action as it's been practiced in this country for decades. There are other, less constitutionally-suspect ways of adjusting those numbers than by judging people by the color of their skin.
Why do you need to adjust the numbers? Prop 209 passed legitimately banning race from being a consideration. The UC and CSU systems predictably changed admission requirements to accommodate the top 2.5% of every high school's class, regardless of state standing ... thereby increasing enrollment, and skirting the law ... and Asians still dominate. Her's an idea: how about we enforce standards early on, and not pass people who can't write an essay or solve a math problem. Also .. high school educators need to stop with th e grade inflation. You should'nt be able to get a 4.3 GPA ... and one thing you can't argue against ... inner city/low income schools are FAR less likely to have AP offerings than high income areas ... and when AP teachers give away A's like candy, that makes it worse.
ReplyDeleteBetter yet, don't admit anyone whose SAT/ACT scores (SAT II/AP foreign languages excepted, for native speakers) don't indicate college-level readiness. For those whose scores are misleading or who are insufficiently motivated, reinstate freshman weeder courses - in my day, English lit/comp, math and the (real) sciences - and flunk them out fast. That used to be the norm in most decent colleges, let alone competitive ones.
ReplyDeleteI'm fine with bonus points for Honors and APs - my kids' school did use - but only if SAT/AP scores correlate. Unless Big Test results match the grades/Honors/AP course designators and reflect learning that content, no bonus weighting and no corresponding designation on transcripts. Too many "honors" and "AP" courses are fraudulent; some to laughable degrees. Prince George's County,MD comes to mind; it's far from a high-performing district, but all kids must take at least one AP to graduate. English appears to be the designated fall guy; as if one could call a course largely filled with kids reading at 6th-grade level or less an "AP". That's from one of their AP English teachers.
Bottom line; fewer students, needing fewer and smaller facilities, fewer academic support programs, fewer diversicrats, fewer ideological group-think "studies" courses, fewer admins, support staff and faculty = cost savings for CA, fed gov't (grants and loans), and students (loand).
Famously ... I believe UCB admitted running back Chuck Muncie with somewhere around a 600 SAT (out of 1600 ... and you got 400 just for signing your name on the test) ...
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