The Sneaky Road Back to Racial Preferences in Admissions – WSJ

The smarter ones could see it was coming. Even so, the Supreme Court s June decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard to hold race preferences in admissions unconstitutional came as a thunderbolt to the whole diversity, equity and inclusion crowd. Colleges have been looking for a way around the decision, and they think they ve found it: by using proxies for race.

That s why it was disappointing to see the justices punt Monday on whether they ll hear Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board. It s all about proxies.

The case features Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a magnet school in Northern Virginia. Until 2020, admission was largely based on standardized test scores, a merit-based system that produced a high school often ranked No. 1 in the nation.

The problem, in the eyes of some, was TJ s racial makeup. It was 73% Asian-American, while the percentages of African-American and Latino students were in the single digits. So the school changed the entrance requirements. Because many of the high-achieving Asian-Americans came from just a handful of schools, the new admissions policy guaranteed that TJ would accept 1.5% of eighth-graders from every school in the district. In practice this meant qualified Asian-Americans at competitive schools would lose seats to less-qualified students from less-competitive schools.

The policy worked as intended and Asian-American admissions dropped. A parents group called Coalition for TJ sued, arguing that the new arrangement discriminates against their children.

via www.wsj.com

William McGurn.