“There are significant racial gaps in education,” said Dalton, “but those disparities are dwarfed by the wealth gap. One statistic that [captures] the legacy of racial inequality in this country [is] net worth. The typical White family enjoys a net worth that is 10 times that of the median non-White family.”
Conley added, “The evidence shows that a class-based policy can work. Take California where Proposition 209 banned race-based admissions. The class-based policy has generally increased racial and ethnic diversity while being color-blind.”
Supporters of class-based policies argue that integrating poor children of all races has not led to improved academic achievement, but integrating poor children with more affluent communities has yielded results.
“It is interesting that President Bollinger mentioned that class-based programs based on income don’t reproduce the same level of racial and ethnic diversity,” said Conley, “[but] with wealth, given how unequally distributed it is by race, you get your case and eat it too.”
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
