DISADVANTAGED, BUT DETERMINED:

Making affirmative action fair for all (Nat Hentoff, Jan. 2, 2003, Jewish World Review)

In one of those University Michigan cases -- Gratz v. Bollinger -- every black, Hispanic or American Indian applicant automatically receives a 20-point bonus on a 150-point scale. If a parent of one of these applicants is a well-to-do corporation lawyer, the bonus still applies.

Justice William O. Douglas -- the most liberal and libertarian jurist in the history of the high court -- spoke to me passionately years ago about this kind of affirmative action case. He said that there are students of all races and ethnic backgrounds who grow up in poverty and have other disadvantages, but who demonstrate determination to overcome these obstacles.

Douglas added that -- whether achievers are black, Appalachian whites or students of any extraction -- they merit a "plus" factor in college admissions, even if their SAT scores and grade-point averages are not in the highest percentiles. Douglas emphasized that the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of "equal protection of the laws" would apply to affirmative action by class, rather than, for example, to giving 20 extra points to only certain narrow categories of applicants.

But George W. Bush's political advisers, hoping to gain more minority votes in 2004, are urging the president not to oppose the University of Michigan's racial preferences by sending a legal brief to the Supreme Court that would state Bush's support of a much more inclusive, constitutional method. According to the Dec. 18 Washington Post, Solicitor General Ted Olson, Attorney General John Ashcroft and key Department of Education officials are advising the president to declare his opposition to the University of Michigan's approach toward racial targeting.

It's hard to see any moral objection to a system that would benefit all students from lousy schools. Of course, the better option would be to give them vouchers when they're young, so they aren't stuck in bad schools to begin with. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 2, 2003 8:56 AM