Richard D. Kahlenberg

About the author: Richard D. Kahlenberg is a fellow at the Century Foundation, a nonpartisan research group that focuses on economic, social, and political institutions and issues. He is the author of The Remedy: Class, Race, and Affirmative Action.

Because a disproportionate number of minority students live in poverty, an affirmative action program based on class instead of race would be able to maintain acceptable levels of diversity within universities without resorting to racial quotas. Instead of considering test scores alone, an affirmative action program based on class would evaluate applicants in light of the disadvantages they faced. Some studies indicate that class-based affirmative action produced twice as many African American admissions to the University of California at Los Angeles than a system relying on test scores...