In today's New York Times, Ross Douthat writes about recent studies of admission practices at elite colleges. These studies show that lower-class whites aren't getting the fat envelope that promises a spot an elite school at the same rate as wealthy white kids.
For minority applicants, the lower a family’s socioeconomic position, the more likely the student was to be admitted. For whites, though, it was the reverse. An upper-middle-class white applicant was three times more likely to be admitted than a lower-class white with similar qualifications.
While affirmative action programs have helped lower income minority students, there aren't the same practices set in place to help lower income whites. In fact, wealthy white kids have an advantage over less wealthy white kids. Why? Legacies?
Douthat, to his credit, isn't begrudging the minority students their place at Harvard. He calls for a great move to get lower income, white kids into elite schools. There are obvious benefits to increasing the income diversity at elite schools. It would mean less alienation among the working class, and it would deflate the popularity of conspiracy theorists, like Glenn Beck. Elites would stop seeing "crypto-Klansmen and budding Timothy McVeighs everywhere they look."
Growing up, the lack of help for working-class Americans was a big theme around the dinner table. Both of my parents came from solid working-class families. My dad grew up on the South Side of Chicago and was the third generation to work in the steel mills. He lucked out, had some great teachers at the University of Illinois, transferred to the University of Chicago, and later earned a PhD.
My mom is second-generation Italian and grew up in the Bronx. Despite angry protests from my grandfather, she worked two jobs to get her BA from Hunter College. My brother and sister and I benefited from my parent's struggles. We grew up in a middle class town, where college was mandatory, and SAT classes were the norm. Many of my Irish cousins in Chicago and my Italian cousins in the Bronx weren't so lucky; some went to college, others didn't. At the dinner table, we were repeatedly reminded about how lucky we are and how education was important. There was also lots of mutterings about the cousins could have used a break in life, too.
Instead of college scholarships, we have the guilty habit of MTV's Jersey Shore, where Italian-Americans have been turned into two-dimensional punchlines.
Over the years, affirmative action programs have been expanded beyond their original mission to bring in more minorities to college. Men are now the beneficiaries of affirmative action, as colleges struggle to provide dates for the smart sorority sisters. Like Douthat, I believe that affirmative action should be expanded to increase economic diversity. At the very least, working class kids shouldn't be bumped out of spot at an elite school to make room for the legacy students.