Within the wake of the Supreme Court docket’s ban on racial preferences in school admissions, lawmakers within the metropolis, like these in Albany and on Capitol Hill, are pushing new legal guidelines to dam comparable favoritism for candidates with household ties to the faculties.
A invoice within the Legislature would prohibit schools from asking the place an applicant’s dad and mom went, with a hefty positive on faculties that violate the ban; final week, the Metropolis Council voted to induce state lawmakers to cross it.
What are you aware? The council is definitely trying to right some actual and blatant unfairness for a change, even when lawmakers could also be going too far by pushing for the legislation.
Critics are actually proper that so-called legacy admissions, very like racial preferences, are unfair.
They name it “affirmative motion” for the wealthy and well-connected, and so they have some extent: Admitting somebody with connections to a college over somebody who lacks them however has higher {qualifications} is unfair.
Nonetheless, onerous and quick legal guidelines dictating what non-public gamers can do strike us as heavy-handed.
Certainly, schools make admissions selections primarily based on quite a few elements, many of which is likely to be thought of “unfair.” Lawmakers haven’t any enterprise second-guessing them.
Racial preferences, after all, are completely different: Because the Supreme Court docket dominated, they’re unconstitutional and violate federal guidelines for faculties that obtain federal funding (as most do).
In addition they run counter to an honorable bedrock US precept: Nobody ought to undergo discrimination primarily based on race — regardless of the explanation.
As good as it’s to see the council, and different lawmakers, lastly piping up with an actual concern, the actual fact is, it’s merely not their enterprise.
