Supreme Court Rules That Race-Based Admissions Programs Are Unconstitutional

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KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

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Summary

The US. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that colleges and universities cannot consider race when admitting students – a decision legal experts say will have wide ranging impacts on students, the education system and the nation’s economy. In a 6-3 decision, the court said that race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina are unconstitutional. The plaintiffs in the case, Students for Fair Admissions, argued that Asian students in particular were discriminated against because of their race. California banned affirmative action for state university admissions in 1996 and is one of nine states with similar bans. We’ll discuss the impact of the ban on California’s students and universities, what other states can learn from attempts to diversify universities post-affirmative action and what the expansion of the ban to private colleges means for California. Guests: Teresa Watanabe, education reporter, LA Times Rory Little, professor of constitutional law, UC College of Law, San Francisco Dania Matos, vice chancellor for equity and inclusion, UC Berkeley Michele Siqueiros, president, The Campaign for College Opportunity, which is a non-profit that seeks to help provide an opportunity to go to college for every eligible student in the state. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:00.8	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that colleges and universities cannot consider race when
1:06.0	admitting students.
1:07.7	It's a decision that legal experts say will have wide-ranging impacts on students,
1:11.7	the education system, and even the nation's economy. California banned affirmative action
1:16.6	for public school admissions via 1998's Proposition 209, a state of affairs that voters gave
1:23.3	a new stamp of approval in 2020 when they defeated a ballot measure to overturn 209.
1:28.9	So in a sense, California's public universities have been living in the future that all colleges
1:33.0	will now operate in. We'll step back to discuss what the data says about California's experience
1:37.5	and what the ruling could mean for students of all kinds. That's coming up next after this news.
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