Politics & Government

Speak Out: Should Affirmative Action Be Eliminated?

The Supreme Court will hear arguments this fall that could change the way colleges and universities use affirmative action to accept students.

Several competitive colleges and universities in Virginia use affirmative action to help diversify their campuses.

But that practice could change if the Supreme Court chooses to overturn the decades-old policy. Last week, the court announced it will hear the controversial Fisher v. University of Texas case in its upcoming fall session. The case's plaintiff Abigail Noel Fisher says she was "unconstitutionally denied admission to the school because she is white," according to The Huffington Post.

In a , University of Virginia law professor Tomiko Brown-Nagin says data from California suggests campuses could become less diverse if affirmative action is overturned. On the other hand, demographer Qian Tsai says the general population is becoming more and more diverse so college campuses will become more diverse, too, regardless of affirmative action.

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After the article was published, several readers contributed to a robust online debate in the comments section.

Commenting on the article, wrote, "there is not a single educational institution in Northern Virginia that would expect its racial demographics to change because of this Supreme Court case."

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Fairfax attorney wrote, "Having now put 4 kids through Virginia universities, I doubt this decision will have a lot of effect on how Virginia's campuses look. From observation only, they tend to be very diverse in terms of race, religion, backgrounds, talents, skills, interests."

Reader wrote that he thinks diversity makes the system stronger. "The strength of this country comes from it's diversity and it's ability to educate it's populace. If we really wanted to make our country stronger we would give college and trade school education away for free to those who wanted it."

Now it's your chance to keep the conversation going.

Speak Out: Should affirmative action be overturned by the court? Or do you think the policy still has relevance and plays an important role in college admissions? Let us know in the comments section below.


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