Affirmative Action Grading? Bs for Asians, Arabs?

Voters in Colorado and Nebraska will decide in November whether their state governments have to discontinue discriminating against certain groups based on race and sex.

The ballot language in Colorado reads "NONDISCRIMINATION BY THE STATE: The State shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting."

Similar proposals have passed in California (in 1996, 54% in favor), Washington (in 1998, 58.3% in favor) and Michigan (in 2006, with 58% in favor; by county, the vote was 80 out of 83 counties in favor of Proposal 2, only 3 opposed).

When Proposal 2 was being considered in Michigan two years ago, I had the following commentary in the Detroit Free Press, suggesting that affirmative action grading would be an unacceptable practice by professors when dealing with students once they are admitted to a university and start taking classes, so it should also be an unacceptable practice by admissions officers when dealing with students before they are admitted to a university.

As President John F. Kennedy said: "Simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races and national origins contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, entrenches, subsidizes or results in racial discrimination."