But, but, but, they're so smart. I know because, when I was one of them, that's what we told ourselves.
From Horace Mann to President Obama, and legions of politicians and educators in between, education has been heralded as the great equalizer, an institution that can balance (if not undo) racial, ethnic or other inequities that separate segments of society.
If higher education in the United States ever fulfilled that role, it is doing so less and less, not more, as time passes.
That is the stark and in many ways distressing conclusion of a report released today by researchers at Georgetown University: “Separate and Unequal: How Higher Education Reinforces the Intergenerational Reproduction of White Racial Privilege.”
The report's assertion that African-American and Latino youth -- especially those from low-income backgrounds -- are underrepresented at the nation’s 468 most selective four-year colleges and overrepresented at the 3,250 open-access two- and four-year institutions will probably surprise few; that’s a circumstance of long standing.
Over 40% of the increase in tuition costs over the last generation has been to fund "diversity" programs and their various deans, directors, and staffs. That was money well spent, eh?
Also, is "intergenerational" a real word?