News from Washington - September 2023
Education reform activists across the spectrum are demanding that if affirmative action preferences for ethnic minorities have to go, so should preferential admission for legacy applicants.
“We are challenging state and college leaders to eliminate structurally racist and systemically inequitable admission policies, such as legacy preference and binding early decision, which make college admissions less fair and erode public trust in higher education,” Jessica Giles, Executive Director of Democrats for Educational Reform in DC, told Hispanic Outlook in a long interview on August 19. While her national organization adamantly opposes the ending of affirmative action, they are among a number of groups across the political spectrum that support the ending of legacy admissions. Early in 2023, the DFER lobbied members of Congress to re-introduce the “Fair College Admissions for Students Act” (S3559). It was introduced in the Senate by Jeff Merkley (D-OR). An identical bill (HR6559) was introduced in the House by Jamaal Bowman (D-NY). The Act would “prohibit an institution of higher education that participates in federal student-aid programs from giving preferential treatment in the admissions process to applicants based on their relationships to donors or alumni of the IHE.” The bills are expected to be reviewed this fall by the Senate HELP Committee and the House Education and Labor Committee with strong endorsements from many educational activist organizations including Education Reform Now, the Education Trust, the National Education Association (NEA), the National College Attainment Network (NCAN), the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS), The Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU).
“A better way to ensure that under-represented students are considered for admission in elite schools equally with all others is to ensure that secondary education funding, curriculum and programs provide equity for all students,” Giles said. Among the projects DFER is involved in is advocating for new brain science discoveries to aid literacy and math proficiencies in secondary schools. DFER also supports national and local partnership projects to expand the number of college admissions overall through dual secondary school/college degree programs.
