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November 15, 2004

Affirmative Action - new study backs common sense

When AA transmogrified into a racial spoils system wherein insitutions were measured on the mix of melanin instead of the quality of the people, those that denounced such systems were/are shouted down as reprobates and racists. Civil discussion about the real consequences of a racial spoils system are few. It is one of the articles of dogmatic faith of the American Left that the US is hopelessly racist and any failure of the group du jour is just further evidence of such racism.

I don't envy UCLA law professor Richard H. Sander, who has just published a study on AA in law schools in this months Stanford Law Review. The brickbats are going to be nasty and fierce. Even The Los Angeles Times article, which is fairly even handed, is topped with the inflammatory and editorialized headline:

Professor Assails Anti-Bias Program

Excuse me, but of all the words or phrases I'd use to describe Affirmative Action programs "anti-bias" would not be one of them.

From the article:

His study asserts that law school affirmative action programs often draw African Americans to tougher schools where they struggle to keep up, leading many to earn poor grades, drop out and fail their state bar exams.

"The big picture is that this system of racial preferences is no longer clearly achieving the goal of expanding the number of black lawyers," Sander said in an interview. "There's a very good chance that we're creating such high attrition rates that we're actually lowering production of black lawyers, and certainly we are weakening the preparation of the black lawyers we are producing."

Affirmative action opponents have made similar arguments about racial preferences in the past, but Sander's research provides new statistics on academic performance. He reports that, in his national sampling, nearly half of first-year black students received grades placing them in the bottom tenth of their classes. In addition, he found that among all students who entered law school in 1991, 45% of black students graduated and passed the bar exam on their first try, while 78% of whites did so.

Sander, who now favors scaling back affirmative action, argues that racial preferences often create an "academic mismatch" that puts black students into competition with white students with stronger credentials. He contends that if the same black students went to less selective law schools, they would earn higher grades, raising their chances of graduating and passing the bar exam.

Prof. Sander is not new to controversy:

Sander also stirred controversy when he wrote an op-ed piece for The Times last year criticizing the UCLA and UC Berkeley law schools, along with the University of California system, for "back door" programs that sidestep the state's ban on affirmative action. The column expressed his growing concerns that affirmative action "allows us to pretend that our racial problems are simpler than they really are" while avoiding addressing "real problems," such as poor inner-city schools and urban segregation.

Prof. Sander has evidently done his homework, but I suspect that those that have vested interests in the racial spoils system will not let facts, reality or common sense stand in their way.

Posted by Darleen at November 15, 2004 10:58 AM

Comments

I also loved USA Today's headline on Friday, ARAB WORLD MOURNS ARAFAT.

Shows how very little they know at that paper. The whole ARAB WORLD, the ones who paid him to stay away? Hmmmm

Posted by: Mieke at November 15, 2004 11:56 AM

- Its always interesting to watch grandious attempts to game the system. Seems to be an eternal delusion for some to find a cheap substitute for hardwork and dedication. just another case of the law of un-intended consequesnces like the study I read today that contends that the liberals are breeding themselves out of existance through the intense practice of "pro-chioce"....

- On another subject you're now BlogRoled on my site... like your style..... Hunter

Posted by: Hunter at November 15, 2004 11:14 PM

My husband once had to open applications for a post he had to fill three (3) times, for them to get someone of the "right" gender and ethnicity, in spite of having other perfectly qualified applicants. And even then, they had to grade this person's test on the curve, in order for then to pass.
Now this was for a minor clerical postition; cerainly nothing life or death, which required serious and real qualifications. But thinking of the waste of time, energy and resources to fill that one job and multiplying by the thousands across the country and over the years - staggering to think of the mediocrity entrenched and supported by policy.
This was city government, no surprise there...

Posted by: Saly at November 16, 2004 06:52 AM