For 40 years, the debate over “affirmative action” in college admissions has seemed to play on loop. Each side airs the same arguments over and over, with the same passion. Yet there is ample evidence that what actually works to move disadvantaged students up the socioeconomic ladder is the colorblind admissions system in California’s public universities. The affirmative-action debate ignited with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1978 decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. The justices ruled that explicit quotas—setting...

Source: Wall Street Journal January 21, 2018 20:37 UTC