Obama administration's new policy guidance on racial diversity in schools

Parents Forum
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<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/education/us-urges-campus-creativity-to-gain-diversity.html?_r=1&hp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/education/us-urges-campus-creativity-to-gain-diversity.html?_r=1&hp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Just wonder how the supreme court would responde in the upcoming Texas case.</p>

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<p>It would have been nice if the Department of Justice had added “content of character” as a permissible preference - just to throw Dr. King a little love.</p>

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<p>So, what is new? The effort of keeping Jews out of Ivies in the 30’s and today’s effort in keeping over-achieving Asians number in check at major Ivies: The same thing at different time. Well, schools, especially private schools are essentially run as business. They will do whatever deemed to be good for the business. Government should leave them alone. the public funded schools, however, should follow government guidelines.</p>

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<p>The main FAQ thread </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1228264-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-9-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1228264-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-9-a.html&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>has more discussion of this issue over on the College Admissions Forum. </p>

<p>The pending (likely) Supreme Court review of the Texas case may clarify the boundaries of what practices are permissible.</p>

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<p>What I’m hearing in the new guidelines is that it’s still OK to take my tax money to support public schools and public universities in my area while it’s simultaneously OK to discriminate against my kids on economic and race-based grounds. How is it fair to allow me to pay for something and then deny me the opportunity to compete equally for a share of that item? </p>

<p>In saying that those who don’t pay taxes for the item in question will get preference (income diversity and economic hardship), they’re basically admitting that charging me taxes to support education is not in fact allowing me to pay for services My family will enjoy – instead, it’s an economic redistribution program that I can pay for but am extremely unlikely to benefit from. THe problem is that there’s a difference between taxes and charity. If I want to donate to a program for children that my children will not benefit from, like the Angel Tree at church, then I should have a choice as to whether or not I want to participate. But if you take my money and then tell me it’s going to be redistributed and that my own family is extremely unlikely to see any of the benefits of my ‘contribution’, then it shouldn’t be labelled as taxes but as something else (like an involuntary donation to my state’s public schools and unviersity system).</p>

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<p>Basically, I think it’s dumb to try to address racial diversity in colleges at the college level. The way to increase racial diversity in colleges is to reform K-12 and to focus on cultural issues within low-achieving racial groups. </p>

<p>But there will be the usual parade of AA defenders on this thread.</p>

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<p>momzie, are you implying that you don’t benefit from a well-educated and more employable workforce? And for the claim that the services are going to those that don’t pay taxes, when it comes to state taxes, in any state that has a sales tax, the impoverished are paying for these services as well. It may be your good fortune that you contribute more, but your wealth has allowed your children to attend better high schools, preparing them for the colleges in your public school system.
I don’t read these guidelines as restricting your children by specifically encouraging partnerships with low-income public secondary schools, both the high school and the college benefit in the long run. These partnerships encourage community service opportunities, help groom a small next-generation of students which, ultimately will bring about better living conditions.
We don’t get to say directly where our tax money goes. I would my military funds pay for troop salaries and their medical care rather than the development of a helicopter that doesn’t work, but I mark a box on my 1040 and make it so. ou may not want to fund improving educational opportunities for the others, but it happens.</p>

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<p>I do hope the media gives this new “policy guidance” lots and lots of coverage.</p>

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<p>This document has links to the actual policies.</p>

<p>[New</a> Guidance Supports Voluntary Efforts to Promote Diversity and Reduce Racial Isolation in Education | U.S. Department of Education](<a href=“U.S. Department of Education”>U.S. Department of Education).</p>

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<p>You can see how this becomes an almost impossible conversation to have at the local K-12 level. No one wants to send their kids cross-town to a poor neighborhood; no one wants poor kids crossing town into their own neighborhood. You can talk about “cultural issues” being at the core of the problem all you want, but, it’s still about poor kids who from day-one receive all of their cultural signals from norms based firmly in <em>American</em> cultural patterns gone wild and which reach full-bloom in what is perhaps that most American of all health epidemics: morbid obesity. </p>

<p>If by the time these kids reach college age, a select few still have a desire to turn their lives around by seeking a college education, I say, “Bravo” to them and to the colleges willing to seek them out.</p>

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<p>Too bad this wasn’t decided before it reached the Supreme court- our district could have saved a lot of money.
Of course admitting/assigning students to schools for economic diversity has been legal all along.</p>

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<p>Discussion of this issue is centralized here:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1228264-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-9-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1228264-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-9-a.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;