Jack, sign the petition to Congress: End legacy admissions to elite colleges.

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A right-wing majority of the U.S Supreme Court has struck down affirmative action in college admissions, ending decades of expanded access to higher education for students of color.

But elite universities can and will continue to offer preferential treatment in their admissions to the children of alumni and donors. Legacy preferences effectively exacerbate discriminatory admissions practices by giving wealthy white students and families even more leverage.

One study revealed that legacy status was comparable in value to a 160-point gain on the SATs. At Harvard, 43% of white students from 2009 to 2014 were legacy admits or athletes. A study found only about a quarter of those students would have otherwise been accepted.

Sign the petition to Congress: Pass the Fair College Admissions for Students Act to prohibit universities from giving special treatment to legacy applicants.

Sign the petition
As universities continue to seek more diverse student bodies, legacy preferences do more to hurt students of color and low-income students. Legacy preferences are, and have always been, rooted in racism and work to exclude Black students and other students of color from educational opportunities, thereby amplifying racial bias in education. ?

In her dissenting opinion, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote: "the Court cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter. The Court subverts the constitutional guarantee of equal protection by further entrenching racial inequality in education."

We must take action now to fight racial inequality in higher education.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) will reintroduce the Fair College Admissions for Students Act to stop universities from giving preferential treatment to children of alumni and donors and help ensure equity in the admissions process. The bill was first introduced in 2022, but now has an added level of urgency with the Supreme Court ruling.

Sign the petition: End legacy admissions to elite colleges.

Sign the petition
Keep fighting,
Paul Hogarth, Daily Kos