2006: Michigan becomes the third state to ban race- and gender-conscious affirmative action policies.
2007: The U.S Supreme Court, ruling 5-4, limits the use of race in school assignments in the consolidated case of Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education. The decision prohibits public school districts from assigning students to schools solely for the purpose of achieving racial integration, and the court declined to recognize racial balancing as a state interest.
2008: A referendum to ban racial and gender preferences is approved by Nebraska voters, but fails in Colorado. Ward Connerly, the former University of California regent behind the bans in California and Michigan, set out to put the issue to voters in five states, but affirmative action proponents in Arizona, Missouri and Oklahoma fought to keep it off the ballot.
2009: The Texas state Legislature approves limits on the Top 10 percent rule guaranteeing state college admission to any Texan who finished in the top 10 percent of their high school class. Passed in 1997, the law was intended to boost diversity on college campuses after a federal court banned affirmative action in admissions. However, with the vast majority of spots at the University of Texas at Austin going to those students, officials had little discretion to admit other talented students. Lawmakers agree to cap automatic admissions to 75 percent of the freshman class at UT-Austin, starting in 2011.
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
