John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Rocker in his Concord home: Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com.

Students for Fair Admissions sued both Harvard and UNC, and asked the Supreme Court to overrule its prior decisions pertaining to affirmative action, arguing they violate the Equal Protection Clause.

David Leonhardt writes in the New York Times, “The debate includes a discussion of similarities and differences between race-based criteria and economic disadvantage, social criteria.”

Regardless of the Court’s decision, the debate over the issue could lead to an examination of the system that causes the felt need for affirmative action – a system rife with stumbling blocks of race, poverty, neighborhood, and housing among others.

There is considerable evidence that our educational system is in trouble. For example, part of my job for eleven years was to read resumes of applicants seeking employment in positions requiring skills in communication. Included in their documents was an essay describing their skills and their interest in a new position. These applicants all had at least Masters degrees. However, I estimate that 30% of these essays did not meet the standards of effective written communication. The syntax was awkward, vocabulary sparse, transitions lacking, and content unimaginative. (I’m cognizant that I leave myself vulnerable to a critique of my own writing – stones in glass houses, and all of that!) However, my curiosity about weak communication skills has piqued. How did it happen that these college graduates had missed out on such a basic skill?

This question calls for an exploration of the disparities in quality of education in grades K through 12. Noting these inequities, admission departments of colleges and universities have perceived the need to practice affirmative action as part of their admission process. Seldom acknowledged is a need for equity, not only for people of color, but also for disadvantaged students facing an economic and cultural hurdle. Until now, colleges and universities have focused on the racial divide.

Many colleges have different admissions criteria for different racial groups. Black, Latino and Native American applicants are now admitted with lower test scores and grades than Asian and white applicants. David Leonhardt wrote, ”But if the court bars that practice, colleges are likely to become more aggressive about using measures of socioeconomic disadvantage. And that’s where the situation could get tricky. Many socioeconomic measures, after all, are strongly correlated with race.” I would add, that’s when the correlation may be taken seriously.

So, the question may become, in what ways can the education system give a boost to the educationally disadvantaged, that undoubtedly includes a racial component? Some would say, life is a zero-sum competition. Winners are lucky enough to have the power or they are brave and ruthless enough to take it. Thus, it is essential that affirmative action remain in place for as long as there is this discrimination, not only in schools but also active in all walks of life – housing, economics, health care, policing, and even humor. Unequal public school systems are one of the symptoms of these wider issues that results in the financially advantaged school districts attracting the most skilled educators while quality education is neglected in neighborhoods of poverty, hunger, and a struggling home environment.

Perhaps the debate in the Supreme Court can expose the underlying need for affirmative action to exist. Tara Isabella Burton writes in Hedgehog Review, “On Hope and Holy Fools,” “What would it mean to understand ourselves… as ordinary people whose lives are lived entwined with one another… That the fact the life we live with one another is the truest expression of who we really are?”

Such an understanding may begin with the revision of public education: providing for the most skilled educators to work in the most needy environments and allocating education funding to meet those needs until they are equivalent with the communities of wealthy and privileged. Skilled, well-compensated educators throughout the educational system will lead to equity and quality public education for all students, learning competence in STEM courses and the communication skills of reading, writing, and speaking.

However, affirmative action must continue until its need dims and equity brightens the horizon with equal access for all students to good jobs and/or higher education. It could be the truest expression of our humanity.

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