Affirmative action in college admissions was a decades-long attempt to get rid of the “everything else” category when it came to applying to two prestigious universities, Harvard and UNC Chapel Hill.
Any disparity in grade point average or standardized test scores were attributed to “everything else” such as differences in family income; health status; housing ― but mostly systemic racism.
While the goals were laudable ― rectification of years of racism ― affirmative action tried to use the collective coercive power of government to short-circuit the admissions process for African-American students which wound up discriminating against another ethnic minority, Asian-American students who had higher qualification scores as a racially identifiable group.
The Law of Unintended Consequences. It happens all the time in politics.
Fortunately, there is one way to fix any statistical disparity in academic performance in America ― but it is going to take a herculean amount of thought, cooperation, compromise and creative ideas to accomplish:
Fix our public education system.
Children come into the public education system with all sorts of background experiences, financial situations and psychological states of mind. To ask any school teacher or public school to try to solve all of our nation’s ills facing our families is totally unfair.
However, we can ask public school teachers and administrations to be a critical factor in the education of every young person for twelve years so they A) stay in school through high school and B) leave with a full panoply of reading, writing and math and science skills so they can be fully-functioning independent citizens of this country.
Any truly motivated and gifted student who comes out of such an improved public education system will be able to compete with anyone whether it is admission to Harvard or UNC Chapel Hill or entering the work force. There would not be any need for any government-sanctioned initiative such as affirmative action which the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional last week.
The time for real and substantive “affirmative action” is way before students apply to a college such as Harvard or UNC-CH. The affirmative action which needs to be undertaken in North Carolina has to include every elected leader, parent, special interest group and voter to band together to do whatever it takes to dramatically reform and improve North Carolina’s public education system.
The state of Mississippi has recently undertaken such a revolutionary mission. So far, the improvement in reading and math skills across all ages and racial designations has been remarkable and statistically significant.
If Mississippi can do the impossible, North Carolina can surely do the same.
Maybe the Asian-American parents who get their children to do hundred calculus problems every afternoon when they come home from school before they go out and play basketball with their friends can help shape the new reforms in North Carolina. We saw such academic discipline and implementation among our sons’ friends in Northern Virginia. While the young Asian boys would rather had been shooting hoops, they did the homework first and then played hoops and are today reaping the benefits of the public education they received.
No matter what happens with opportunity scholarships and school choice, over 80% of our students are going to be enrolled in North Carolina public schools for coming decades ― we owe it to them to have the “choice” to stay in their public school with their friends and get a great education.
Legend had it that whoever untied a seemingly-impossible-to-untie rope knot attached to an oxcart in Gordium, Phrygia would become ruler of all Asia. When Alexander The Great was asked to untie it in 333 BC, he took out his sword and cut right through it ― and also later became ruler of all Asia.
If we North Carolinians can cut through the Gordian Knot of our state’s public education system, that will be the most affirmative of all actions we can possibly ever take.
