California's decision in 1996 to outlaw the use of race in public college admissions was widely viewed as the beginning of the end for affirmative action at public universities all over the United States. But in the four years since Californians passedProposition 209, most states have agreed that killing affirmative action outright would deepen social inequality by denyingminority citizens access to higher education. The half-dozen states that are actually thinking about abandoning race-sensitiveadmissions policies are themselves finding that the only way to enlarge the minority presence in college without such policies isto improve dramatically the public schools that most black and Latino students attend. As a result, these states are keeping a close eye on California, Texas and Florida, where "percentage systems" have sprung upto replace affirmative action. Under these systems, students who achieve a specified ranking in their high school graduatingclasses are guaranteed admission to state colleges. In California, for example, the so-called 4 percent plan guarantees college admission to everyone in the top 4 percent of highschool graduating classes statewide. Minority enrollment, which crashed after Proposition 209 passed, has rebounded at thesecond-tier colleges. But the decline has continued at the flagship colleges, U.C.L.A. and Berkeley -- largely because the highschools in black and Latino neighborhoods routinely fail to offer the advanced placement courses that are readily available inwhite neighborhoods and that are taken into account when the elite colleges make admissions decisions. The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California has challenged this arrangement in a class-action lawsuit. Havingeliminated the race-sensitive policies that once compensated for these inequalities, California is now being forced to deal withthe inferior public schools that made those policies necessary. The University of Texas has ...
