Nina Svirsky's Critical Conversation Response #2

If we think back to last week's discussion, many of us, including myself, noted that pummeling diversity into the minds of already-failing, already-ignored schools would not solve the issue of educational inequity that has so plagued our school system for centuries. We agreed that getting to the root of the problem and realizing (AND solving) what made some of those mostly minority-populated schools so underserved and under-resourced would inevitably help close the racial achievement gap across America and integrate schools as a beautifully inevitable, diverse result of attempting to provide equal access to important resources for all. I believe we can draw many parallels from these conclusions to the issue at hand: affirmative action and its use of "positive discrimination" to give minorities the opportunity to rise above the systemic inequity that's kept them below their true potential as students for so long. Similarly, and even exacerbated by the fact that this policy is in place for access to higher education as opposed to early educational intervention, affirmative action truly applies to the saying, "too little too late". Most of the students who are truly struggling in our educational system, most of whom are minorities, do not even succeed in high school ANYWHERE NEAR the standards set to graduate, much less to worry about getting into college. The over 1.2 million high school dropouts whose education has failed them cannot be ignored in the face of setting socio-economically blind, racially driven admissions considerations for university. And though many make the argument that affirmative action allows minority students to attend colleges they may not be ready for and will ultimately struggle in, I don't think that's nearly the heart of the problem. The problem is that poor kids are left out - they miss out before affirmative action even matters in their lives. They are alienated by a college admissions system that appeals increasingly towards a white upper-middle class culture. They are, as early as third grade, measured by stifling standardized testing parameters that don't take into account how behind they were when they first stepped into their kindergarten classrooms as kids with working parents who might not have had time to read to them every night. Closing the racial achievement gap is much more complex an issue than simply considering race in a holistic review of a high school senior's college application because for various, undeniable inequities in our school system,  most kids, black or white, Hispanic or Asian, don't even make it there. Why? Not enough money in their parent's pockets.