Recently, there has been much controversy over the University of Michigan’s affirmative action program. However, very few feel there is not a need to have diversity in America’s institutions of higher learning.
President George W. Bush’s plan to increase diversity has a serious fundamental flaw. It is based upon a Texas program in which the top 10 percent of graduates of public high schools are guaranteed admission into the University of Texas System. This is supposed to increase diversity because high school students generally attend schools where their ethnic group is the majority.
This seems like a good plan, but the method of achieving diversity at the postsecondary level is based on segregation at the secondary level. Bush’s plan pursues diversity at the cost of segregation. Isn’t it ironic?