Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a half-century of precedent and made it illegal for public and private universities and colleges to consider race in student admissions. The decision comes at a time when the nation is rapidly diversifying, with less than half of children under age 15 identifying as white.
Immediately following the ban, the percentage of Black, Hispanic and Native American students attending selective colleges in the state plummeted, research shows. With the introduction of race-neutral policies aimed at capturing a similar population of underrepresented students a few years later, those numbers rebounded somewhat, but remain far lower than previous levels.
Science News spoke with labor economist Zachary Bleemer of Princeton University, who has spent years studying what happened in California. “I think [California’s affirmative action ban] is the closest thing we’ve got to a reasonable sort of microcosm for what is about to happen nationally,” he says.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
2023-07-06 06:00:00
Link from www.sciencenews.org