Underachievement Quotas

Thomas Sowell recently wrote a column about leftist attacks against admission standards and testing for college-preparatory schools. Therein, Sowell raises a good question for the quota-pushers, including teachers' unions and those civil rights "leaders" who imagine that "their civil rights include getting into these elite schools, whether they qualify or not":

If racism is the reason why there are so few blacks in Stuyvesant High School, why were blacks a far higher proportion in Stuyvesant in earlier times, as far back as 1938? Was there less racism in 1938? Was there less poverty among blacks in 1938?

Sowell, who has written extensively on such matters in the past, also includes a nice history lesson for anyone who imagines that it is unusual for some groups to be over- or under-represented in such institutions.

-- CAV