Affirmative Action Debate...

                                Affirmative Action Debate

  A new book titled Mismatch by Richard Sander and Stuart Taylor delves into the  issue of affirmative action, and looks at this issue through the lens of academic preparation.

  According to the authors, the problem of educational inequality results from a deficient K-12 educational system for minorities. Sander and Taylor agree that "there just aren't enough academically prepared black and, to a somewhat lesser degree, Hispanic students to fill America's top colleges at the median level of academic preparation, a level that is determined mostly by Asian and white applicants." To remedy this problem, according to the authors, administrators add the equivalent of 100 points or more to the SAT scores of many minority applicants. The book makes the point that "administrators tend to call this policy affirmative action, because surveys show that Americans of all races approve of affirmative action, however, it is actually a system of racial preferences, which surveys show that Americans of all races overwhelmingly reject.

  In the view of Richard Sander, a professor of law at UCLA, and Stuart Taylor, a distinguished legal journalist, the current system of preferences does discriminate against Asian and white students. What is most disturbing to the authors is the lack of academic preparation given to many minority students.The thesis of the book is the reality that "placing unprepared students in challenging academic environments humiliates them, frequently derailing their lives and careers." It could be said that "a system of racial preferences was placing students with the strongest scientific ability at the institutions where they were least likely to achieve their goals."

  The authors look at the bigger picture as well, by delving into the 'breadth of the mismatch" in the larger university culture. They describe the psychological effects of preferences,the complicated judicial reasoning surrounding affirmative action, and the results of Proposition 209 in California, where universities ignored what they described as positive academic results, and began implementing 'holistic" policies to keep up minority enrollment.