Democrats are taking aim at the common practice of giving a leg up to the children of alumni and donors in the college admissions practice as a key plank of their response to the conservative Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate affirmative action in college admissions.
The party seems to be coalescing behind the elimination of legacy admissions as it looks for a way to respond to the ruling. Representatives of the influential Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus all endorsed the idea on a call with reporters on Thursday afternoon, and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) are set to introduce legislation eliminating the practice soon.
Studies have shown eliminating legacy preferences, which inherently favor those whose parents went to college or come from wealthy backgrounds, would do relatively little to change the demographic makeup of college enrollments, however, and Democrats and the White House are also looking at other ways to respond to the ruling.
President Joe Biden, speaking shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s dual rulings striking down the affirmative action practices of Harvard and the University of North Carolina, did not directly call for the elimination of legacy admissions, though he argued that college admissions are tilted against the working class.
“Today, for too many schools, the only people who benefit from the system are the wealthy and the well-connected. The odds have been stacked against working people for much too long,” Biden said. “We need a higher education system that works for everyone, from Appalachia to Atlanta.”
The White House said it would work with the departments of Education and Justice to help inform colleges about the ways they can still consider race in college admissions and would host a summit next month for college leaders to discuss how to maintain diverse student bodies.
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