How should American colleges measure merit?
On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti
WBUR
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 12 August 2025
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Trump Administration ordered universities to turn over data to prove they're not considering race in admissions. But education expert Richard Kahlenberg argues that for college admissions to look at merit fairly, they need to look at class.
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| 1:04.2 | WBUR Podcast, Boston. |
| 1:19.3 | This is on point. I'm Megna Chakrabardi. Two years ago, the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling that ended affirmative action in college admissions. |
| 1:29.0 | Last week, President Trump issued a memorandum that indicates he does not believe colleges and universities are complying with the court ruling. |
| 1:36.4 | Titled, ensuring transparency in higher education admissions, in the memorandum, Trump writes, |
| 1:46.8 | quote, greater transparency is essential to exposing unlawful practices and ultimately ridding society of shameful, dangerous racial hierarchies, end quote. It goes on, quote, race-based admissions practices are not only unfair, but also threaten |
| 1:53.0 | our national security and well-being, end quote. The memorandum requires colleges to report |
| 1:59.3 | applicant data to a federal database, which would then be made public. |
| 2:04.1 | The applicant data includes race, test scores, and grades. |
| 2:08.2 | Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the data will help shine a light on whether colleges admit students based on merit or on race. |
| 2:16.4 | Quote, we will not allow institutions to blight the dreams of students by presuming that their skin color matters more than their hard work and accomplishments, end quote. |
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