Affirmative inaction: An empirical analysis of affirmative action in four states.
详细信息
文摘
Affirmative action is an extremely controversial policy. All of the parties to the controversy can agree on that much. The academic debate over affirmative action has swirled around the normative arguments, either for or against the policy. Yet, until now, there has been no examination of the empirical bonafides of the policy. Thus, the debate up to this point has proceeded with little empirical evidence as to the effects of such policies and the consequences for the students involved. Clearly an empirical analysis of the impact of affirmative action would be necessary in order to fully assess the efficacy of the policy.;The traditional measures of higher educational policy are efficiency, equity, and increased access. Affirmative action's proponents claim that the policy results in increased diversity in the student body, or greater access, and that such diversity is more efficiently achieved through affirmative action than through any other mechanism. Another claim made by the proponents of the policy of affirmative action is that the policy is more equitable than any other mechanism for achieving diversity. Despite these claims, there is little empirical support for them. It would seem remiss to cling to any policy that has little or no empirical support.;There has been no great zeal in attacking this problem from a purely empirical basis within the academic community. There is a "don't ask, don't tell" approach to affirmative action policy that extends back to the inception of the policy in the 1960s.;This study assesses the question of whether affirmative action really works, whether it achieves equity, fairness and efficiency as a public policy outcome. The four states that have abolished affirmative action over the last fifteen years are California, Florida, Texas, and Washington. This study assesses the impact that the abolition of affirmative action had in each of these four states. If affirmative action can be empirically sustained, then there would be a measurable adverse impact in the diversity of entering freshman classes in colleges and universities within these four states. Regressions were performed for each of these states within four ethnic groups using data from IPED and from the United States Census. These ethnic groups were Hispanics, Blacks, Asians or Pacific Islanders, American Indian or Alaskan Natives, and Whites. Regressions were also performed controlling for each of these ethnic groups as a percentage of the total population of each state. No discernable impact on the diversity of entering freshman classes was discovered.