Welcome to the Michelle Tofoya podcast. I want to read you a tweet in the wake of affirmative action being ostensibly overturned by the Supreme Court, Ian Rowe, who is an educator, entrepreneur, and author of this fantastic book agency. We've had him on once before. He tweeted years from now, black students admitted to top schools will say,

thank you, Supreme Court, for a decision that removes the perception.

The only reason I got in is due to my race.

You reestablish merit as the core criterion to be considered against a standard bar of excellence.

That tweet that Ian Rowe put out has been seen over a million times and retweeted and

retweeted and retweeted and retweeted.

We're going to talk to Ian Rowe about this in moments.

Now it's time for some sanity.

It's the Michelle Tofoya podcast.

Well, as I said, Ian Rowe is an educator.

He's an entrepreneur.

He's a very wise man.

And a couple of tweets he sent out in the wake of the Affirmative Action overrule,

if you will, by SCOTUS, have been received very widely and retweeted. This one had 6,000 likes, 332 bookmarks, 161

quotes, and it's been seen 909,000 times. Here, let me quote Ian Rowe. If you are concerned

that the decision to end race-based affirmative action will result in fewer black students in college, consider this.

In 2015, 18% of fourth grade black kids read at or above proficient defined by the National Assessment of Educational Progress as the nation's report card.

In 2019, only 15% of that same cohort, now in eighth grade, read at or above proficient

levels. Now in 2023, it's very likely that less than 20% of that same cohort of black high school

seniors is reading at proficient levels. The biggest issue that group faces is not the lack of affirmative action to get into

college.

It's being ill-prepared before even getting there.

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