Mohamed Akram Faizer

Volume 27.2 (download PDF)

Abstract

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate race-based admissions will problematically make it more difficult for underrepresented minorities’ to gain admission to elite colleges and universities. However, it offers an opportunity to finally address racial inequality in access to preschool and K-12 education, by removing the political cover that allowed elite credentialing to perpetuate social advantage and ignore distributional justice. To create a more inclusive admissions process, cultural competence experts should collaborate with civil society to develop policies that consider all perspectives. This approach, inspired by administrative law’s notice-and-comment framework, can help institutions prioritize factors like resilience over regressive metrics tied to socioeconomic status. In the long term, this shift could encourage elite schools to engage with marginalized communities to address the racial opportunity gap from the ground up. It might also challenge the country’s excessive focus on hyper-elite credentials as a pathway to success, and recognize that there are many highly capable students and graduates from less selective schools that merit consideration for prestigious jobs. This change could promote socioeconomic mobility and foster a more inclusive and equitable society.