This paper discusses the education component of Affirmative Action, a social action program of President Johnson’s War on Poverty that attempted to counterbalance minority injustices by increased opportunities for minorities.
This paper states that affirmative action was never intended to give prospective students a significant advantage based solely on racial origin. The author feels that affirmative action has had a negative effect on both minority and non-minority students and should be discontinued. The paper recommends that educational inequalities should be rectified before students get to college.
However, some California university officials have responded by seeking ways to get around Proposition 209. They now use an admission policy called comprehensive review. (Williams, 2002) Under this new admissions policy, the personal circumstances of all students are considered, ostensibly without regard to race. If a student has faced significant hardship in his or her life, the student is given extra consideration for admission.