WILL POTTER
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This article was part of a special package on how the Supreme Court rulings would affect different racial groups. I also reported from the court the day the rulings came down, as part of a group effort to cover the story.
"Many Hispanic Students Live in States That Already Ban Affirmative Action," The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 6, 2003, 21.
By WILL POTTER
For many Hispanic Americans, affirmative action in college admissions is already dead. About 58 percent of the nation's Hispanic population lives in three states — California, Florida, and Texas — where public colleges have been precluded from considering race or ethnicity in admissions decisions.
If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds race-conscious college-admissions policies, they stand a good chance of being revived in Texas, where they had been struck down by a 1996 federal-court decision. But in California, where public colleges were banned from using race-conscious admissions through a 1996 ballot initiative, and in Florida, where state officials prevented public colleges from considering race in admissions, it would take a shift in the political tides to bring such policies back.
Critics of affirmative action point out that California, Florida, and Texas haveall managed to bolster Hispanic enrollments at their public universities through the use of "percent plans," which guarantee admission to students in some top portion of their high-school graduating class. Because Hispanic children in those states are even likelier than black children to attend overwhelmingly minority high schools in poor neighborhoods, they theoretically stand to benefit most from policies that promise the best students at every high school access to a selective college.
But many leaders of Hispanic organizations point out that in those three states, while the overall college enrollment of Hispanic students has risen because of population growth, the proportion of the Hispanic population attending college has actually declined.
Some states "may not have a critical mass of Latino students to make these race-neutral plans effective," says Raul Gonzalez, education policy analyst for the National Council of La Raza, a nonprofit group dedicated to improving opportunities for Hispanic-Americans. "If we're relying on racial segregation on high-school campuses to increase diversity at colleges, it sends a mixed message about diversity."
Different Concerns
The Hispanic population is not a political monolith. Wealthy Cubans in South Florida have different concerns than, say, Mexican immigrants in Texas. In a national survey by The Chronicle, only 8 percent of Hispanic respondents strongly support the use of racial preferences in college admissions, compared with 3 percent of white respondents and 24 percent of black respondents.
Yet when asked if colleges and universities should admit students from racial minority groups even if they have lower high-school grade-point averages and standardized-test scores than other students, 61 percent of Hispanic respondents agreed, compared with 25 percent of white respondents, and 56 percent of black respondents.
"No group will have a uniform opinion on an issue this controversial," said Thomas A. Saenz, vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "But when you look at the nationwide Latino population, there is a general understanding of the critical importance of educational opportunities, and of the importance of affirmative action in keeping those opportunities available."
Despite their varying backgrounds and political differences, Hispanics are indeed a distinct group, according to a supporting brief submitted to the Supreme Court by the National Council of La Raza and 27 other Latino organizations. "This identity is shaped by several common (though not universal) characteristics, including a Spanish language tradition; underachievement as a group in the educational system; disproportionate concentration in lower income labor/service sectors; the presence of a large immigrant population; and an enduring history of racial discrimination."
Twice as many Hispanic people as white people are unemployed, the brief said. Hispanic people are approximately 12 percent of the nation's population, but make up nearly 30 percent of those in the federal prison system. "The statistics are alarming, if not shameful," the groups said. Affirmative action could begin to remedy these problems by funneling more Hispanic students into colleges, they added.
Needed for Legal Profession
Some supporting briefs argued in even more specific terms. The New America Alliance, a nonprofit organization of Latino business leaders, detailed how race-conscious programs have benefited prominent Hispanic people. And briefs by the New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association and the New York State Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus argued that without affirmative action, their states would be unable to provide adequate legal services for the Hispanic population.
The Hispanic National Bar Association and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities said that "if, as predicted by the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of Hispanics in the population increases to 24.5 percent by 2050, it would take 138 years from 1990 for Hispanics to comprise one of every four members of the legal profession." The briefs from those organizations said it would take even longer without affirmative action.
