A new analysis from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce details the impact of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision banning race-conscious admissions policies at colleges and universities.
Specifically, the report explores the legal history of racial equity in education, evaluates alternatives to considering race/ethnicity in college admissions, and proposes changes to the K–12 education system that would improve educational opportunity. It also identifies the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1978 decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke as a turning point that led to the long-term defeat of race-conscious admissions policies.
The report concludes that class-conscious admission models could result in more racial diversity than the current system, but only if all selective colleges used class-conscious admissions practices, considered a much larger and more diverse pool of applicants for admission, and removed other preferred admissions policies, such as those that favor legacies, the children of big donors, and athletes.