The Race to College

In the next few weeks I am going to start applying to Law School. I did well enough, though not as well as a I hoped or expected, to have a legitimate shot at gaining admission to almost any law school in the country. Only the top fifteen schools or so are likely unattainable. If only I was black or hispanic. If that were the case I would be a shoe-in at virtually every law school in the country. (Save for state schools in Washington, California, and, as of last tuesday, Michigan- voters in those states have the crazy idea that applicants should be judged as individuals and not as members of racial groups.) According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, I should be glad I'm not Asian. I can't link to it, because it is subscription only, but here is compelling snapshot:

The University of Michigan may be poised for a similar leap in Asian-American enrollment, now that voters in that state have banned affirmative action. The Center for Equal Opportunity study found that, among applicants with a 1240 SAT score and 3.2 grade point average in 2005, the university admitted 10% of Asian-Americans, 14% of whites, 88% of Hispanics and 92% of blacks.

There is no reason to believe that graduate school admissions work any differently. The idea that we should treat people so drastically different based only on their race is, despite the best of intentions, so blatantly wrong and un-American. Again, I understand the intent behind racial preferences, but the logic is deeply twisted. The real problem lies largely with the public education system from K-12. Minority kids are not less smart than whites or asians. What they need is a level playing field, not an artificially adjusted scoreboard in the form of de facto quotas.

How do we level the playing field? For one, by widening access to private schools and the better public schools. Relatively wealthy white families can afford to send their kids to private schools or move to the best school districts. If more minorities were allowed the use of vouchers, this advantage would cease to be so pronounced. One of the more interesting political stories of the last few years is the unlikely alliance between many minority groups and conservatives in support of vouchers.

Teachers unions continue to be the largest roadblock to vouchers. From what I have read and from news reports that I have seen about them, when it comes to this issue, I find them to be one of the most self-interested, morally repugnant unions around. It seems like then exist solely to protect bad teachers. Ultimately, they are afraid of the competition that private schools would bring. If it was easier for students to flee bad schools then, inevitably, many of them would fold. Public school teachers' jobs would be lost. The unions can't have that. They would quite literally rather see millions of kids suffer through a poor education.

But don't believe me. Read this.


That was weird. I just happened to stumble upon this guy who's got very different ideas about how to improve education.