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Consideration of race in higher education financial aid
 on Civil Liberties |
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The use of affirmative action in higher education includes financial aid policies designed to benefit groups that have been historically excluded or underrepresented, such as women and minorities. These policies tend to provide some sort of advantage in consideration to aid applicants from minority groups. Debate continues on this topic, with critics arguing that colleges should reward merit only and that the policies are outdated. Some opponents also claim that the policies are unconstitutional, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Amendment XIV, United States Constitution. Supporters argue that these policies have resulted in increased minority enrollment in colleges, that the programs have thus far been successful, and that current admissions statistics show a continuing need for them.[1]
Federal laws and guidelines
Under current United States law, public colleges and universities are permitted to consider race in admissions and financial aid when doing so furthers a compelling interest of the state in obtaining educational benefits. Further, the consideration must be narrowly tailored, meaning that the policy is necessary to achieve the compelling interest and that "there are no race-neutral or less burdensome alternatives that could achieve the same interest." According to UCLA's Civil Rights Project, two types of compelling interests justify racial considerations: promoting educational diversity and remedying previous discrimination. Educational benefits may include "cross-racial understanding, the different perspectives of students who have experienced discrimination and related disadvantages, the breakdown of racial stereotypes, and the promotion of effective participation by all racial and ethnic groups." Much of the justification for these programs comes from Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.[2][3][4]
The United States Department of Education has established five principles in regards to the use of race in awarding financial aid::[3][5]
- Principle 1, Financial aid for disadvantaged students: "A college may make awards of financial aid to disadvantaged students, without regard to race or national origin, even if that means that these awards go disproportionately to minority students."
- Principle 2, Financial aid authorized by Congress: "A college may award financial aid on the basis of race or national origin if the aid is awarded under a federal statute that authorizes the use of race or national origin."
- Principle 3, Financial aid to remedy past discrimination: "A college may award financial aid on the basis of race or national origin if the aid is necessary to overcome the effects of past discrimination. A state may award financial aid on the basis of race or national origin, under the preceding standards, if the aid is necessary to overcome its own past discrimination or discrimination at colleges in the state."
- Principle 4, Financial aid to create diversity: "A college should have substantial discretion to weigh many factors - including race and national origin - in its efforts to attract and retain a student population of many different experiences, opinions, backgrounds, and cultures - provided that the use of race or national origin is consistent with the constitutional standards reflected in Title VI, i.e. , that it is a narrowly tailored means to achieve the goal of a diverse student body."
- Principle 5, Private gifts restricted by race or national origin: "Title VI does not prohibit an individual or an organization that is not a recipient of federal financial assistance from directly giving scholarships or other forms of financial aid to students based on their race or national origin. Title VI simply does not apply."
FinAid, a website that compiles information on student financial aid, has identified several characteristics of acceptable and unacceptable criteria for considering race in awarding financial aid. These include the following:[3]
- Race can be one of many factors, but not the sole deciding factor.
- Considerations for diversity should consider more than just race, such as personal adversity and living abroad.
- Automated, mechanical systems may not consider race. "In particular, automated systems that award points to an individual based on race or which establish quotas for a particular race or which use a different threshold for a particular race are not acceptable."
- There must not be a separate budget for students of a particular race.
- "The amount of the financial award should not be based on race, but on other factors, such as financial need, or a fixed amount that is the same for all races."
- There should be an annual evaluation of the impact on non-minority students. Similarly, the diversity of the student body must be evaluated annually.
- Special efforts to recruit minority applicants, such as publications geared toward minority applicants, are acceptable.
- Ranking and comparative approaches may not consider race.
- Remedies for discrimination should be focused. "When race is considered to remedy past discrimination, as opposed to enhancing diversity, it should be focused on remedying actual discrimination at the school and not more generally in society at large."
- Numeric and percentage goals are prohibited. "Racial preferences cannot be considered in the context of a goal for a given number or percentage of students for each race. In particular, if the school tracks the demographic composition of the incoming class, such reports should not be provided to the individuals making admissions decisions, nor should they be used to influence those decisions in any way."
State
In addition to federal laws and guidelines, states may set restrictions on the use of race in admissions and financial aid policies at public universities. The following states have passed legislation restricting or eliminating the consideration of race in admissions and financial aid in public higher education institutions:[3]
- California: Proposition 209, a state constitutional amendment, bans the use of race in college admissions and financial aid at California state colleges. This amendment was challenged and upheld in 2010 by the California Supreme Court.[6]
- Florida: An 1999 executive order eliminated the use of race in college admissions to state universities. The state adopted the "Talented 20 Program," which guarantees admission to public postsecondary institutions to students graduating in the top 20 percent of their classes and completing a specific minimum high-school curriculum.[7]
- Michigan: Proposal 2, passed in 1998 by Michigan state voters, eliminated consideration of race, ethnicity and gender from the college admissions process.[8]
- Washington: Initiative 200 eliminated consideration of race, ethnicity and gender from the college admissions process.[3][9]
Private institutions that accept federal funding are subject to federal rulings in regards to the use of race in admissions and financial aid. However, private colleges and universities that do not receive federal funding are not subject to these rules.
Support
Supporters of affirmative action policies in admissions argue that these policies are necessary to promote diversity in college admissions. The Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity at North Carolina State University claims that without these policies, "it is likely that our nation’s premier colleges and universities would be mostly occupied by white men and Asian American students, who tend to score higher on standardized tests than women and other minorities." Some claim that admissions statistics in states that have eliminated affirmative action policies show a need to keep them. For example, minority student admissions at UC Berkeley fell 61 percent after California eliminated the use of race in admission consideration. Some also claim that the policies enhance education by providing students a diverse environment that reflects the diverse society they will be entering following their education.[1][10]
Stella Flores, Director of Access and Equity at the Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy, wrote that, "[p]eer-reviewed research overwhelmingly shows that race-neutral methods of admissions, including state bans on affirmative action, do not yield racial and ethnic diversity on college campuses, and, in fact, multiple statistical analyses of the effects of race-neutral policies show that the level of race and ethnic diversity decreases under these programs."[11]
Richard Rothstein wrote for The American Prospect that class-based considerations were not enough, and that race should still be a factor considered. "Even for low-income families, other groups’ disadvantages—though serious—are not similar to those faced by African Americans. Although the number of high-poverty white communities is growing (many are rural; solicitude for these prompted Texas Republicans to support the Ten Percent Plan), poor whites are less likely to live in high-poverty neighborhoods than poor blacks. Nationwide, 7 percent of poor whites live in high-poverty neighborhoods, while 23 percent of poor blacks do so."[12]
Opposition
Critics of affirmative action policies argue that the policies are unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, or Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Some argue that these policies may lower educational standards, as students might strive to meet a lower standard believing that these policies will allow them admission and financial aid regardless. Others argue that these policies tend to favor only the middle and upper class, and should be based on economic factors rather than race.[1][13]
Scott Gerber, professor of law at Ohio Northern University, has argued that, "[w]hile the Supreme Court has said that race may be a plus factor in admissions decisions, it has never said that race can be the basis for scholarship awards once an applicant has been admitted." According to Terry Pell, president of the Center for Individual Rights, "[a] scholarship awarded on the basis of race inevitably stigmatizes talented minority applicants, who come to be recognized for their race rather than their considerable academic achievements."[14]
The Atlantic wrote in 2012 that, "[t]he largest, most aggressive preferences are usually reserved for upper-middle-class minorities on whom they often inflict significant academic harm, whereas more modest policies that could help working-class and poor people of all races are given short shrift. Academic leaders often find themselves flouting the law and acting in ways that aggravate the worst consequences of large preferences. They have become prisoners of a system that many privately deplore for its often-perverse unintended effects but feel they cannot escape."[15]
Studies
A 2011 study by Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid, found that "minority students are less likely to win private scholarships or receive merit-based institutional grants than Caucasian students." Kantrowitz found that white students earned 65.2 percent of all private scholarship funding in 2007, with African American students taking the second largest share, 11.9 percent. Pell Grant distribution was the opposite, with Kantrowitz finding that "minority students are more likely to receive such need-based grants than Caucasian students, the distribution is largely consistent with the prevalence of minority students in the low-income student population." According to the study, "83.0 percent of African-American students, 79.6 percent of Latino students and 69.5 percent of Asian students are low-income, compared with only 55.3 percent of Caucasian students."[16]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms financial aid affirmative action. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Affirmative action
- State affirmative action information
- Affirmative action ballot measures
- Higher education in the United States
- Higher education by state
- Education policy in the United States
- Amendment XIV, United States Constitution
External links
- National Conference of State Legislatures, Affirmative Action Overview
- The Century Foundation
- U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
- Project on Fair Representation
- American Civil Liberties Union
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 National Conference of State Legislature, "Affirmative Action Overview," accessed December 21, 2015
- ↑ UCLA, "Constitutional Requirements for Affirmative Action In Higher Education Admissions And Financial Aid," September 23, 2002
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 FinAid, "Affirmative Action and Financial Aid," accessed December 17, 2015
- ↑ United States Department of Justice, "Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964," accessed December 18, 2015
- ↑ U.S. Department of Education, "Nondiscrimination in Federally Assisted Programs," February 23, 1994
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "Affirmative action ban not unconstitutional, California Supreme Court rules," August 3, 2010
- ↑ Florida Department of Education, "6.002 Admission of Undergraduate First-Time-in-College, Degree-Seeking Freshmen," accessed December 18, 2015
- ↑ Michigan Legislature, "§ 26 Affirmative action programs," accessed December 18, 2015
- ↑ American Civil Rights Institute, "Washington's I-200 Language," accessed December 18, 2015
- ↑ Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity, "Affirmative Action in Education," accessed December 21, 2015
- ↑ Vanderbilt University, "Vanderbilt legal, education experts: Not the end of affirmative action," June 26, 2013
- ↑ The American Prospect, "The Colorblind Bind," accessed December 22, 2015
- ↑ Stanford Alumni, "The Case Against Affirmative Action," accessed December 21, 2015
- ↑ Huffington Post, "Affirmative Action and the Crisis in Higher Education," accessed December 22, 2015
- ↑ The Atlantic, "The Painful Truth About Affirmative Action," October 2, 2012
- ↑ FinAid, "The Distribution of Grants and Scholarships by Race", accessed December 22, 2015
