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The Failure of Percentage Plans
Opponents of affirmative action often point to so called "percentage plans" as the alternative to race conscious admissions. Percentage plans, like those in California, Florida and Texas, guarantee a certain percentage of the top students in every high school in the state admission to the state university system.. These plans rely on the fact that K-12 education is becoming increasingly segregated, and thus that accepting the top students from all state high schools will guarantee admission to a significant number of minority students.
In addition to their reliance on segregation at the K-12 level, there are many serious policy problems with percentage plans, and data now show that percentage plans have failed to provide the diversity and access provided by race conscious admissions programs. The following resources detail the policy concerns and data regarding percentage plans:
The University of Michigan has created an excellent summary of the data and policy arguments regarding percentage plans. For more information, see http://www.umich.edu/news/?Releases/2003/Jan03/chr012903.
- The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights recently analyzed college application, admission and enrollment data to determine if percentage plans can "achieve the goal of equal educational opportunity." The Commission concluded that "percentage plans alone do not improve diversity by reaching underrepresented minority groups and will only have their desired effect if affirmative action and other supplemental recruitment, admissions, and academic support programs remain in place."
- The Harvard Civil Rights Project has released two reports challenging claims that Percent Plans Provide a Viable Alternative to Affirmative Action. http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/
The first report: Appearance and Reality in the Sunshine State: The Talented 20 Program in Florida , by Patricia Marin, PhD, and Edgar K. Lee, MPP, is a detailed analysis of Florida's Talented 20 program, implemented when Governor Jeb Bush ended affirmative action in state higher education admissions.
http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/affirmativeaction/florida.php
- The second study: Percent Plans in College Admissions: A Comparative Analysis of Three States' Experiences by Catherine Horn, PhD and Stella M. Flores, MPA, compares the experiences of Texas, California, and Florida, the three states with percent plans.
http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/affirmativeaction/tristate.php
- For additional discussion of percentage plans, and race sensitive admissions, see Bok, Derek. The Uncertain Future of Race-Sensitive Admissions, Revised Draft, January 20, 2003 http://www.nacua.org/documents/Unceratin_Future_of_Race_Sensitive
_Admissions_Revised.pdf.
(updated 1/05)
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