Affirmative Action Challenged Anew

Inside Higher Ed: Affirmative Action Challenged Anew

When Texas and a few other states responded to bans on affirmative action with “percent plans,” which guarantee admission to public colleges to those who graduate in some designated top percentile of their high school classes, some critics of affirmative action were troubled. The plans were adopted in states like Texas where many high schools are largely segregated (by housing patterns, not law), so offering automatic admission for the top 10 percent of graduates assures a measure of diversity at public universities. Some critics viewed the plans as an end run around the bans on affirmative action since the plans were designed with the idea of getting more black and Latino students into top universities — but in a way that couldn’t be legally challenged.

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