Affirmative Action in Education

A growing issue on many campuses across the United States is Affirmative Action. It brings up questions such as: "Are white students being discriminated against during the college admission process?" and "Is it fair to let blacks and other minorities into colleges and programs if their GPA's and test scores aren't as good as members of other groups who applied?"

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 provided the legal framework for affirmative action in education and employment as well as prohibiting racial or ethnic discrimination in all federally assisted programs and activities. However, it has been three court cases that went to the U.S. Supreme court, which have set the foundation for the dialog on Affirmative Action.

To learn more about the Civil Right Act of 1964 click this link:
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/civil-rights-act/

The first case is University of California v. Bakke. In this 1978 case Allan Bakke applied for admittance to the University of California Davis's Medical school. When he was denied admission he filed a lawsuit against the university after minorities with lower GPA's and MCAT scores were let into the school. The university of California had been using Quotas in its admission process. Quotas in education, are a fixed number of spots reserved for minorities and women. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Bakke by deciding that the use of racial quotas in admission policies by colleges was unconstitutional however race could be a deciding factor in admission.

For more information about the Bakke Case click this link:
http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/balbak.html

The second two cases, Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger were brought against the University of Michigan's Law School. Gratz and Bollinger claimed that they were discriminated against because they were white. They “…claimed that the University’s affirmative action policy unlawfully discriminated against white applicants by giving consideration to race and ethnicity in making admission decisions, and thus admitting minority applicants that were deemed less qualified.” The Supreme court rulled against Gratz in his case but in favor of Grutter in his case.

For more information about Gratz v. Bollinger click this link:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-516.ZS.html

For more information about Grutterv. Bollinger click this link:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-241.ZS.html

"In 1995, the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Fifth Circuit (Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana), in the case of Hopwood v. Texas, ended all considerations of race in recruitment, admissions and scholarships in all public institutions in Texas.

In 1996, the voters of California passed Proposition 209 which abolished all affirmative action programs in the state in employment, education and contracting.

Since affirmative action programs were banned in California and Texas the number of minority students enrolled in universities has declined. Many groups such as, the Harvard University Civil Rights Project, Americans for a Fair Chance, the ACLU, and American Association of Affirmative Action, believe that affirmative action programs remain to be the only effective solution for achieving racially and ethnically diverse universities." http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/action_affirmative_action.html

After clicking the links and learning more about these three cases, feel free to leave any comments or concerns: Do you agree or disagree with the Supreme Court's rulings? How do you feel about fewer minorities being enrolled in college after California and Texas banned Affirmative Action?