{"id":1826,"date":"2023-07-12T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carnegie25live.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=1826"},"modified":"2025-12-16T11:15:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T19:15:48","slug":"eliminating-affirmative-action-wont-level-the-playing-field-it-will-tilt-it-further-in-the-wrong-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/eliminating-affirmative-action-wont-level-the-playing-field-it-will-tilt-it-further-in-the-wrong-direction\/","title":{"rendered":"Eliminating Affirmative Action Won\u2019t Level the Playing Field \u2013 It Will Tilt It Further in the Wrong Direction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The end of the academic year usually brings a collective exhale of relief at colleges and universities. Today the education sector is stunned and disappointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In two Supreme Court decisions \u2013 rooted in ideology, not reality \u2013 six conservative justices struck down affirmative action in higher education.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Dismantling affirmative action will have a profound impact on American society. It will make hundreds of colleges and universities less diverse. It will diminish opportunity for all<\/em> students to learn from and with people of different backgrounds, life experiences, and perspectives. And it will deny students from low-income and underserved communities the transformative power of a bachelor\u2019s degree \u2013 the best tool in the nation\u2019s arsenal to accelerate social and economic mobility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The higher education sector does not serve students equally by any stretch of the imagination. Low-income families invest the equivalent of 157 percent of their annual income to pay for one year at a four-year college.<\/a> In contrast, high-income families send their children to college for 14 percent of their annual income. Only 50 percent of Black students entering a four-year institution in 2016 completed their degree in six years<\/a>, compared to approximately 80 percent of Asian American students and 74 percent of white students. Just 21 percent of first-generation college-going students receive a bachelor\u2019s degree within six years. Turning a blind eye to these facts does not make them any less real. Eliminating affirmative action doesn\u2019t level the playing field\u2014it tilts it further in the wrong direction.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the few ballasts for educational equity in our country eroding, Americans must act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n