“Racial preferences put more minority students on campus, but in ways that reduce the number who graduate. Conversely, when racial preferences were banned in the University of California system, the number of black students who graduated actually increased substantially, as did their grade point averages. Instead of failing at Berkeley or UCLA, these students graduated from other good quality universities in the system.”
20 thoughts on “Quotation of the day: Thomas Sowell on academic mismatch”
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There is a reason the government’s motto is Fire! Ready! Aim!
aim? since when did they add aim?
ha ha! So funny because it’s true.
Because the Democrats and their union masters care about the kids:
In the public schools in Detroit, Mich., according to the U.S. Department of Education, only 7 percent of the eighth graders are grade-level proficient or better in reading. …
Detroit public-school eighth graders do even worse in math than they do in reading, according to the Department of Education. While only 7 percent scored highly enough on the department’s National Assessment of Educational Progress test in 2011 to be rated “proficient” or better in reading, only 4 percent scored highly enough to be rated “proficient” or better in math.
Statewide in Michigan, only 32 percent of public-school eighth graders scored grade-level proficient or better in reading, and only 31 percent scored grade-level proficient or better in math. …
Over the past decade, Michigan’s public school have shown no improvement .. — CNS News
Why would Democrats need the Klan when they’ve got the teacher’s unions?
I realize this may make me sound like an elitist, but I really don’t care:
College is not for everybody. To make college admissions based on something arbitrary like race works against everyone involved.
you don’t sound like an elitists. You sound like a realist.
Jon,
That isn’t an elitist statement. Many aren’t comfortable confronting stark facts.
To show you what I mean, I disagree with your last sentence. I think race is arbitrary as IQ. What is arbitrary is to think that IQ and scholastic aptitude are not correlated or that IQ and race are not correlated. Both are demonstrably wrong.
The basic assumption of those in favor of affirmative is that there are no differences between the races and the only thing holding back preferred races are barriers to entry in the admissions office. On top of this particularly wrong assumption, many in favor of affirmative action ignore the results of affirmative action and pat themselves on the back for “having done something” regardless of the effects of that something.
Professor Jacobson has a blog posting you might find interesting: Data mining may be used to cheat on restrictions on Affirmative Action
I realize this may make me sound like an elitist, but I really don’t care:”
Spoken like a true elitist.
jk
For the record, I am not denying I’m an elitist.
Jon, that statement puts you in a very elite group.
Jon, you only sound like an elitist, because many established white families in America had greater opportunities, over many generations, to build wealth.
Just like the Viet Namese who came here in the seventies and eighties right? Or the successful Mexican or Chinese or Nigerian immigrants that came 5 or 10 years ago and are running businesses and employing others. Or any of the millions of other immigrants from around the world who have come here, educated themselves and their families and become economically independent.
I’m just trying to put my finger on how they benefited from “generation of white advantage” and as soon as i figure it out I know I’ll agree with you.
Rick, if blacks had the same opportunities as whites throughout U.S. history, they’d be proportionally and properly matched at top universities, right?
Why? Are Asians proportionally and *properly* (what does that mean?) matched at top universities?
Ron, unlike the U.S. black population ratio, the U.S. Asian population ratio has been increasing. Many of the world’s best Asians attend top U.S. universities.
Proportionally and properly matched compared to their populations.
“Ron, unlike the U.S. black population ratio, the U.S. Asian population ratio has been increasing. Many of the world’s best Asians attend top U.S. universities.
Proportionally and properly matched compared to their populations.
Bullshit.
Peak trader,
“Properly” matched? Who gets to decide what is “proper”?
Why do you believe that any population group would have representation at top universities that is proportionate to their population size? Are you aware that the Ashkenazi Jewish population worldwide has higher intelligence than just about any other ethnic group? Why would you think this ethnic group be represented in proportion to their representation of overall population? Wouldn’t it make more sense if they were represented in proportion to their representation of the population of highly intelligent humans?
John and Ron, so, you both don’t believe if domestic blacks and domestic whites had the same opportunities in U.S. history, the percentage of blacks in top U.S. universities would be (roughly) equal to the percentage of whites in top U.S. universities.
Peak
“John and Ron, so, you both don’t believe if domestic blacks and domestic whites had the same opportunities in U.S. history, the percentage of blacks in top U.S. universities would be (roughly) equal to the percentage of whites in top U.S. universities.”
I neither believe nor disbelieve that any group would be represented in school enrollment in proportion to their representation in the general population. I have no idea.
As I pointed out Asians are overrepresented by a wide margin in proportion to their numbers in the general population with Asian undergrad students making up 40% of the students at UCLA. That’s neither good nor bad, it just is what it is.
I don’t consider disproportionate representation to be a problem as you apparently do. I don’t believe there’s any more reason to expect proportionate representation among college students than for any other group.
I think it’s a mistake to attempt to enforce proportional attendance without knowing what factors might account for the disparity other than just assuming it’s unequal opportunity. If an applicant doesn’t qualify for admission based on every other measure, and without regard to race, then it’s clear they shouldn’t go to that school. To admit a student only because of race is to set them for failure and resentment. Not at all the result intended.
Keep in mind that many black applicants to top schools are from middle class and upper middle class backgrounds, and have had every advantage their white neighbors have had. The neither need nor deserve special consideration, and it is highly insulting to suggest that they do..